LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIFT  OF  THE 

STATE  VITICULTURAL  COMMISSION. 


,  January,  1896. 
Accession  No.  (o  I  (0  3  (ft       Class  No. 


^STATE  VITICULTURAL 
Oe- 


THE 


RAMROD  BROKEN; 


O  R, 


IN  FAVOR   OF 


THE    MODERATE   USE 


GOOD    SPIRITUOUS   LIQUORS 


SHOWING  THE  ADVANTAGE   OF  A   LICENSE   SYSTEM  IN 

PREFERENCE  TO   PROHIBITION,  AND   "MORAL" 

IN  PREFERENCE  TO   "LEGAL  SUASION." 


A   NEW   ENGLAND    JOURNALIST. 


£o**  Of  TOR 

iUIXTlBSITY] 


BOSTON: 
ALBERT     COLBY    AND     COMPANY, 

No.   20  WASHINGTON   STREET. 

1859. 

TV 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1859,  by 

ALBERT   COLBY  AND   COMPANY, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


PUBLISHERS'  ADVERTISEMENT. 


WE  need  not  remind  the  reader  that  publishers  are  not  expected 
always  to  indorse  the  sentiments  of  their  authors  ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  quite  frequent  that  books  advocating  entirely  opposite 
sentiments  are  published  by  the  same  parties.  For  instance,  a  book 
is  published  upon  some  subject,  and,  in  course  of  time,  a  reply  is 
written  and  offered  to  the  same  house,  who,  having  known  the  course 
of  the  circulation  of  the  first  book,  can  turn,  the  reply  into  the  same 
channels.  In  this  country  of  ours,  where  free  discussion  and  liberty 
of  speech  are  respected  by  all  parties,  this  practice  cannot  be  con- 
sidered inconsistent.  Let  any  subject  be  fairly  discussed,  and  then, 
and  not  till  then,  may  we  hope  to  arrive  at  truthful  conclusions. 

Among  the  books  we  publish  is  the  following  :  — 


MAINE  LAW  TRIUMPHANT;  or,  the  Mysterious  Parchment 
and  Satanic  License  :  showing  the  necessity  of  total  abstinence  and 
stringent  prohibitory  laws  to  prevent  the  great  and  fearful  evils  of 
intemperance.  By  Rev.  JOEL  WAKEMAN,  Pastor  of  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  of  Almond,  New  York." 

This  book  has  been  before  the  public  since  1853,  and  has  been 
favorably  received.  A  reply  to  the  same,  and  some  other  works 
of  a  kindred  nature,  is  now  before  you.  It  advocates  different  views 
and  sentiments  from  those  advanced  in  the  other  book  ;  but  knowing 
the  author  as  one  of  the  most  popular  editors  in  New  England,  and  a 
man  of  unquestionable  candor  and  honesty  withal,  we  are  confident 
his  book  will  receive  due  consideration  from  all  true  friends  of 
temperance  and  reform. 

(3) 

"[RSfTTl 


SIT-    PKEFACE. 


oar 

mi 


THIS  book  aims  to  be  candid  and  entirely  honest.  If  we 
thought  there  was  a  page  of  cant  in  it,  we  would  tear  it  out. 
It  treats  of  a  subject  that  is  never  touched  upon  save  with 
prejudice,  or  in  passion,  or  for  partisan  purposes,  and  endeav- 
ors to  treat  of  it  in  a  direct  and  truthful  way.  The  reader 
need  not  be  afraid  of  finding  it  full  of  hot  and  denunciatory 
words,  more  than  half  of  them  blasphemous  at  that ;  we  leave 
that  sort  of  business  to  writers  who  labor  to  make  proselytes 
to  their  peculiar  way  of  thinking,  instead  of  laboring  to  make 
all  questions  better  understood. 

This  matter  of  Temperance,  we  conceive,  has  never  yet 
been  taken  hold  of  by  the  handle.  The  right  sort  of  men 
have  not  addressed  themselves  to  its  discussion.  They  have 
been  either  men,  on  the  one  hand,  who  are  above  and  be- 
yond their  business,  mere  theorizers,  whose  knowledge  of 
human  nature  is  scanty,  and  whose  great  aim  is  to  shape  the 
common  heart  to  their  notions,  instead  of  the  contrary ;  or,  on 
the  other  hand,  of  men,  who,  from  their  very  habits  and  ways 
of  life,  could  never  have  been  at  the  trouble  to  form  an  opinion 
of  their  own,  even  if  they  had  the  brains  so  to  do  —  drunkards 
in  the  slow  process  of  reformation,  and  men  of  corresponding 
tastes  and  sympathies. 

Now,  it  will  be  admitted  that  the  world  cannot  afford  to 
1  *  (5) 


D  PREFACE. 

follow  the  lead  01  either  of  these  classes  of  individuals.  There 
is  a  spirit  of  progress  ever  to  be  consulted,  and  there  is  a  spirit 
of  conservatism ;  they  are  the  centripetal  and  centrifugal 
forces  in  nature  ;  but  the  happy  medium  to  hit  is  that  which 
lies  somewhere  between  the  two.  One  thing;,  at  least,  is  self- 

o"  " 

evident ;  that  in  the  work  of  planning  reform  movements  the 
safest  way  is,  first,  to  understand  the  peculiarities  of  that  hu- 
man nature  which  you  expect  to  reform.  The  Almighty  did 
not  make  us  all  to  a  particular  mould,  or  measure ;  and  pro- 
fessed reformers  may  as  well  remember  that  fact,  and  take  a 
hint  from  it.  If  it  is  best  that  wines  and  other  stimulating 
drinks  should  not  be  used  at  all,  then  there  must  have  been 
some  radical  fault  in  getting  up  the  race,  and  that  should  be 
attended  to  before  we  go  about  any  thing  else. 

The  "  Ramrod  "  is  the  man  who  goes  for  stringent  laws  — 
so  stringent  that  they  cannot  be  executed ;  for  making  liquor 
contraband  ;  for  punishing  a  man  who  buys  and  sells  it,  as  he 
would  punish  a  criminal ;  for  having  human  nature  something 
different  from  what  it  is ;  and,  generally,  for  going  the  "  straight 
thing"  clear  through.  He  derived  his  name  in  the  State 
where  his  favorite  law  had  its  birth,  and  is  every  where  known 
by  that  name  now. 

This  book  will  best  speak  for  itself,  without  the  help  of 
prefaces  or  commendations  of  any  kind.  It  is  addressed  to 
every  man's  common  sense  and  common  reason.  It  labors 
only  for  Temperance,  and  seeks  to  do  so  in  a  temperate  and 
rational  way;  with  intemperate  men,  whether  zealots  or  drunk- 
ards, it  has  no  more  sympathy  than  it. would  freely  extend 
to  every  one  who  truly  needs  reformation. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

1.  Introductory. 9 

2.  What  the  Bible  has  to  say 14 

3.  The  Good  and  the  Evil 22 

4.  Pure  and  Impure • 28 

5.  Our  Third  Article  of  Faith 34 

6.  The  License  System 43 

7.  In  Moderation 51 

8.  Too  Much 60 

9.  The  Unconstitutionality  of  Prohibition 67 

10.  The  Liquor  Agencies 73 

11.  License  and  Agency 80 

12.  At  the  West 86 

13.  In  a  Nutshell 92 

14.  A  Song  of  Burns 99 

15.  Newly  Invented  Crime 104 

16.  A  Good  Text 110 

17.  Our  Best  Intellects 117 

18.  Prohibition  Bitters 124 

19.  John  H.  W.  Hawkins 130 

20.  A  Few  Anecdotes 139 

21.  The  Necessity  of  Stimulants 147 

(7) 


8  CONTENTS. 

22.  Laws  against  Stimulants 155 

23.  The  Satanic  License ;  or,  a  Bad  Cause  badly  Defended 161 

24.  The  Maine  Law 169 

25.  The  Causes  of  Intemperance 177 

26.  A  Thousand  Dollars 185 

27.  American  Wines.  —  Part  1 195 

28.  American  Wines.  —  Part  IE 204 

29.  Intoxicating  Food 211 

30.  Neal  Dow's  Law  executed  by  himself. 228 

31.  Receipts  for  Domestic  Liquors 238 

32.  The  Curse  of  Opium 251 

33.  Delirium  Tremens 261 

34.  The  Three.  —  An  Honest  Ramrod,  &c 267 

35.  The  Use  of  Tobacco.  .'.» 279 

36.  Tea  and  Coffee 284 

37.  Moral  Suasion 288 

38.  Conclusion 297 


THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 


i. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

THE  question  of  Temperance,  in  one  form  and 
another,  has,  without  doubt,  caused  as  much  excite- 
ment in  the  past  as  it  ever  will  in  the  future.  From 
occupying  the  position  of  a  merely  moral  and  reform- 
atory question,  it  has,  by  passing  into  the  hands  of 
selfish,  ambitious,  and  designing  men,  so  changed  its 
attitude  and  its  merits  together,  of  late  years,  that  it  is 
in  no  sense  the  question  it  was,  depending  upon  its 
own  intrinsic  merits  to  insure  for  it  a  thorough  discus- 
sion, but  has  enlisted  on  its  side,  and  into  its  service, 
about  all  the  passions  that  disfigure  the  soul  of  man 
and  the  body  of  society. 

There  is  evidently  a  turn  in  this  state  of  things  close 
at  hand.  In  truth,  circumstances  without  number  point 
to  this  most  conclusively.  The  old  adage  concerning 
the  long  lane  that  has  no  turning  applies  very  happily 
to  this  very  matter.  There  never  yet  was  an  extreme, 
but  an  opposite  extreme  followed  and  corresponded 

(9) 


10  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

with  it.  The  principle  is  exactly  that  upon  which  the 
pendulum  of  a  clock  swings.  After  excessive  action 
comes  a  reaction,  and  of  necessity,  in  the  very  nature 
of  things.  The  human  soul  cannot  bear  to  be  screwed 
lip  to  such  a  pitch,  all  the  while,  without  desiring  to 
let  itself  down  by  the  easiest  and  most  instantaneous 
methods.  No  human  being  can  bear  excitement  with- 
out end.  And  no  cause  known,  whether  that  of  Tem- 
perance, of  Religion,  or  any  other,  possesses  vitality 
and  strength  necessary  to  keep  it  long  on  its  feet,  if  it 
must  be  stimulated  all  the  time  by  the  aid  of  passion, 
prejudice,  wrangling,  and  contention. 

These  may  sound  to  the  casual  reader  like  mere 
truisms ;  but  the  experience  of  the  social  state  shows 
us  that,  truisms  though  they  may  be,  they  constitute  the 
great  underlying  principles  on  which  the  permanency 
of  the  social  fabric  rests.  What  men  are  apt  to  pass 
by  as  comparatively  unimportant,  and  of  secondary 
consequence,  generally  happens,  after  all,  to  be  at  the 
bottom  of  all  things. 

We  are  perfectly  safe  in.  saying  that  the  day  of  gen- 
eral and  fanatical  excitement  over  the  Temperance 
question  has  gone  by  forever.  It  is  not  possible  again 
to  work  up  the  public  mind,  by  the  appliances  of  cau- 
cuses, and  conventions,  and  stated  preaching,  and  legis- 
lative machinery,  to  such  a  pitch  of  frenzy  as  it  has 
suffered  from,  in  certain  localities,  in  the  past.  No 
such  thing  can  be  done  more  than  once,  any  more  than 
we  may  ever  expect  again  to  witness  the  crusades  and 
the  quarrels  about  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

Men  are  returning  to  their  senses.  They  are  fast 
developing  the  wisdom  principle  within  themselves. 
They  have  become  satisfied  that  nothing  comes  of  loud 
and  angry  discussion,  and  that  temperance  is  nowise 
promoted  by  the  bigotry  of  intemperate  and  blind  zeal- 
ots. They  find,  on  reflection,  that  society  is  not  apt  to 
be  moved  by  gunpowder  explosions  to  adopt  novel  the- 
ories of  reform,  and  that  it  is  no  way  at  all  to  try  to 
make  a  man  better  to  denounce  him  on  account  of  his 
present  wickedness.  They  see,  furthermore,  that  there 
are  certain  customs  and  habits  existing  in  the  social 
state  that  are  rooted  in  human  nature  itself,  and 
which  it  is  just  as  hopeless  a  task  for  them  to  attempt  to 
pull  up  with  violence  and  haste,  as  it  would  be  to  drag 
forth  mountains  and  hills  from  their  base  and  tumble 
them  into  the  sea. 

And  in  addition  to  the  discovery  of  these  habits  and 
customs  that  have  their  root  and  existence  in  nature, 
they  have  also  discovered  that  there  are  certain  inalien- 
able rights  belonging  to  man  in  his  social  state,  with 
which,  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  he  has  never  parted. 
Commerce  is  generally  considered  to  have  some  little 
potency  as  yet  in  holding  together  and  nourishing  so- 
cieties, and  peoples,  and  nations ;  and  it  acts  as  a 
mighty  and  all-pervading  agent  in  the  several  channels 
through  which  it  makes  its  own  vitalizing  waters  flow. 
Trade  is  not  altogether  a  thing  of  the  past,  but  works 
as  actively  in  the  promotion  and  furtherance  of  the 
final  interests  of  the  community  as  any  other  living 
power. 


12  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

And  these  matters  are  not  to  be  forgotten.  The  im- 
pulse to  make  the  world  better  by  force,  whether  of  law 
or  of  the  sword,  has  been  exploded  long  ago,  and  we 
can  only  wonder  at  the  ignorance,  and  admire  the 
hardihood,  of  those  would-be  reformers  and  leading  men 
who  propose  to  re-create  the  world  by  the  potency  of 
their  own  hollow  word.  There  are  few,  indeed,  even 
of  the  once  ardent  teetotalers  and  temperance-legisla- 
tion men,  who  do  not  confess  more  than  ever  before  to 
the  need  of  introducing  "  moral  suasion "  again  into 
their  "  prohibitory  "  undertakings  ;  and  there  are  very 
many  who  are  quite  disheartened  with  the  prospects 
under  legislative  processes  alone,  and  begin  openly  to 
express  themselves  of  opinion  that  the  cause  of  Tem- 
perance can  be  helped  along  only  by  falling  back  upon 
moral  suasion  altogether. 

Such  abundant  evidences  of  the  change  that  has  oc- 
curred, and  is  continually  occurring,  in  the  minds  of 
the  leaders  in  relation  to  this  matter,  is  by  no  means 
to  be  slighted  or  passed  over.  It  indicates  plainly 
enough  that  a  better  day  is  dawning;  that  however 
much  a  man  may  desire  the  reform  of  the  race,  he  can- 
not hope  to  aid  that  reform  in  any  way  so  rapidly  and 
effectually  as  by  a  purification  of  his  own  life,  and  a 
perpetual  watchfulness  over  his  own  thoughts  and  incli- 
nations. In  this  matter,  all  reform  begins  -at  home. 
Personal  example  is  more  effective,  a  thousand  times, 
m  producing  converts,  than  all  the  high  and  hot  words, 
or  all  the  long-jointed  arguments,  that  were  ever  packed 
into  either  discussions,  or  newspapers,  or  books. 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

We  propose,  in  this  little  volume,  to  state  certain 
propositions  in  relation  to  our  belief  on  matters  of  tem- 
perance, offering  proofs  of  the  same  as  we  go  along  ;  to 
show  that  the  moderate  use  —  not  the  abuse  —  of  good 
spirituous  liquors  is  hurtful  to  no  man,  but  rather  a  ne- 
cessity and  a  comfort  to  him  ;  to  establish  the  fact  that 
the  Bible  every  where  favors  the  use  of  liquor,  wine  and 
otherwise,- — and  so  do  the  examples  of  History,  —  and 
so  does  common  sense  itself;  to  show  the  manifest  ad- 
vantages of  a  properly  guarded  license  system  over  any 
merely  theoretical  system  of  prohibition ;  and,  finally, 
to  argue  as  conclusively  and  lucidly  as  we  can,  that 
moral  suasion,  in  this  matter,  has  in  all  respects  the 
preference  over  legal  enactments. 

And  inasmuch  as  this  is  a  subject  in  which  all  men 
alike  must  feel  an  absorbing  interest,  and  has  been  so 
long  held  up  for  public  discussion  that  it  evidently 
drifts  forward  on  the  current  of  popular  opinion  towards 
a  speedy  decision,  either  one  way  or  another,  —  we  feel 
satisfied  that  the  matter  contained  in  the  following 
pages  will  challenge  the  reflecting  and  serious  reader's 
perusal.  And  we  therefore  offer  it  without  further  in- 
vitation or  comment ;  merely  adding,  that  no  unpreju- 
diced mind  can  successfully  resist  the  continued  appeals 
to  reason  and  good  sense  that  are  making  every  where, 
day  by  day,  by  experience  and  by  reflection,  by  per- 
ception and  by  fact,  to  their  consideration. 
2 


14  THE  EAMROD  BROKEN. 


n. 

WHAT  THE  BIBLE  HAS  TO  SAY. 

OUR  first  proposition,  then,  is  as  follows :  — 

We  believe  that  the  Bible  teaches  that  a  moderate 
use  of  good  spirituous  liquors  tends  to  health,  happi- 
ness, and  length  of  days  ;  and  that  whoever  denies 
this  doctrine,  or  the  fact  of  these  teachings,  is  an  un- 
believer both  in  the  authenticity  of  the  Bible  and  in 
the  doctrines  it  so  plainly  sets  forth. 

The  Good  Book,  in  fact,  abounds  with  passages  that 
establish  the  above  proposition.  We  can  pick  them 
out  alike  from  the  pages  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Tes- 
taments. And  we  defy  those  who  pretend  to  rely  on 
the  Holy  Scriptures  for  the  evidence  of  the  faith  that  is 
in  them,  to  show  that  these  passages  have  any  meaning 
at  all,  unless  it  is  directly  and  unmistakably  in  support 
of  the  proposition  thus  stated. 

Suppose,  for  example,  we  begin  and  cite  a  few :  — 

In  Proverbs,  31st  chapter,  6th  and  7th  verses,  the 
wise  Solomon  says,  "  Give  strong  drink  unto  him 
that  is  ready  to  perish,  and  wine  to  those  that  be  of 
heavy  hearts. 

"  Let  him  drink  and  forget  his  poverty,  and  remem- 
ber his  misery  no  more." 

Good  old  Israel,  too,  after  whom  the  church  of  God 


WHAT   THE   BIBLE   HAS   TO   SAY.  15 

is  named,  in  his  dying  blessing  says  of  Judah,  the  head 
of  that  tribe  out  of  which  sprang  all  the  glory  of  the 
Hebrew  race,  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  —  in  Gen- 
esis, 49th  chapter,  9th-12th  verses,  — 

"  Judah  is  a  lion's  whelp;  from  the  prey,  my  son, 
thou  art  gone  up :  he  stooped  down,  he  couched  as  a 
lion,  and  as  an  old  lion ;  who  shall  rouse  him  up  ? 

"  The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a 
lawgiver  from  between  his  feet,  until  Shiloh  come ;  and 
unto  him  shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be : 

"  Binding  his  foal  unto  the  vine,  and  his  ass's  colt 
unto  the  choice  vine ;  he  washed  his  garments  in  wine, 
and  his  clothes  in  the  blood  of  grapes  : 

"  His  eyes  shall  be  red  with  wine,  and  his  teeth  white 
with  milk." 

It  is  also  written  in  2  Samuel,  6th  chapter,  14th 
verse, — 

"And  David  danced  before  the  Lord  with  all  his 
might ;  and  David  was  girded  with  a  linen  ephod." 

And  in  the  19th  verse,  — 

"  And  he  dealt  among  all  the  people,  even  among 
the  whole  multitude  of  Israel,  as  well  to  the  women  as 
men,  to  every  one  a  cake  of  bread,  and  a  good  piece  of 
flesh,  and  a  flagon  of  ivine.  So  all  the  people  departed, 
every  one  to  his  house." 

Further,  in  the  104th  Psalm,  David  praises  God,  and 
says  in  the  14th  and  15th  verses,  — 

"  He  causeth  the  grass  to  grow  for  the  cattle,  and 
herb  for  the  service  of  man  :  that  he  may  bring  forth 
food  out  of  the  earth ; 


16  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

"  And  wine  that  maketli  glad  the  heart  of  man,  and 
oil  to  make  his  face  to  shine,  and  bread  which  strength- 
eneth  man's  heart." 

Now,  if  we  turn  forward  to  the  pages  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, we  shall  meet  with  evidence  that  goes  still 
more  strongly  to  establish  and  fortify  our  proposition. 

As  a  crowning  piece  of  testimony  in  favor  of  our 
position,  we  produce  what  the  Saviour  himself  said  and 
did  on  earth,  —  "  He  that  spake  as  never  man  spake," 
-^•He  who  says,  "  Before  the  world  was,  I  AM,"  —  He 
who  came  to  earth  working  wonders  and  miracles, 
and  preached  the  blessed  gospel  of  "  Peace  on  earth, 
good  will  to  man."  The  very  first  miracle  Jesus  per- 
formed was  the  well-known  miracle  at  the  wedding 
feast  in  Cana  of  Galilee  ;  by  which  water  was  turned 
into  wine,  —  not  for  medicinal,  nor  yet  for  mechanical 
purposes,  but  simply  for  the  festive  purposes  of  that 
particular  occasion. 

We  quote  the  entire  narrative,  in  all  its  simplicity 
and  beauty,  from  the  1st  to  the  12th  verses  of  the  2d 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  as  follows :  — 

"  And  the  third  day  there  was  a  marria'ge  in  Cana  of 
Galilee  ;  and  the  mother  of  Jesus  was  there. 

"  And  both  Jesus  was  called,  and  his  disciples,  to 
the  marriage. 

"  And  when  they  wanted  wine,  the  mother  of  Jesus 
saith  unto  him,  They  have  no  wine. 

"Jesus  saith  unto  her,  Woman,  what  have  I  to  do 
with  thee  ?  mine  hour  is  not  yet  c.ome. 


WHAT   THE   BIBLE   HAS   TO   SAY.  17 

"  His  mother  saith  unto  the  servants,  Whatsoever  he 
saith  unto  you,  do  it. 

"  And  there  were  set  there  six  water-pots  of  stone, 
after  the  manner  of  the  purifying  of  the  Jews,  contain- 
ing two  or  three  firkins  apiece. 

u  Jesus  saith  unto  them,  Pill  the  water-pots  with 
water.  And  they  filled  them  up  to  the  brim. 

"  And  he  saith  unto  them,  Draw  out  now,  and  bear 
unto  the  governor  of  the  feast.  And  they  bare  it. 

"  When  the  ruler  of  the  feast  had  tasted  the  water 
that  was  made  wine,  and  knew  not  whence  it  was,  (but 
the  servants  which  drew  the  water  knew,)  the  governor 
of  the  feast  called  the  bridegroom, 

"  And  saith  unto  him,  Every  man  at  the  beginning 
doth  set  forth  good  wine  ;  and  when  men  have  well 
drunk,  then  that  which  is  worse ;  but  thou  hast  kept 
the  good  wine  until  now. 

"  This  beginning  of  miracles  did  Jesus  in  Cana  of 
Galilee,  and  manifested  forth  his  glory ;  and  his  disci- 
ples believed  on  him." 

Matthew  and  Mark  narrate  the  same  occurrence,  as 
may  be  readily  seen  by  turning  to  their  pages. 

St.  Paul  likewise  writes  in  his  First  Epistle  to  Tim- 
othy, 5th  chapter,  23d  verse, — 

"  Drink  no  longer  water,  but  use  a  little  wine  for 
thy  stomach's  sake  and  thine  often  infirmities." 

Also  in  Colossians,  chapter  2d,  verse  16,  he  says :  — 

"  Let  no  man,  therefore,  judge  you  in  meat,  or  in 
drink,  or  in  respect  of  a  holy  day,  or  of  the  new  moon, 
or  of  the  Sabbath  day." 


18  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

We  are  very  well  aware  that  the  old  objection  or 
quibble  will  be  raised  to  this,  that  the  wine  spoken  of 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  was  not  of  the  kind 
that  would  intoxicate.  That  is  very  easily  said,  but  it 
will  not  be  quite  as  easy  to  prove.  But  let  us  look 
and  see  how  it  is. 

Read  St.  Paul's  advice,  or  rather  caution,  to  the 
churches,  as  regards  the  difference  in  eating  and  drink- 
ing in  one  another's  houses,  and  eating  and  drinking 
the  communion: — 1st  Corinthians,  llth  chapter,  20- 
22d  verses,  — 

"  When  ye  come  together  therefore  into  one  place, 
this  is  not  to  eat  the  Lord's  supper. 

"  For  in  eating  every  one  taketh  before  other  his  own 
supper :  and  one  is  hungry,  and  another  is  drunken. 

"  What  ?  have  ye  not  houses  to  eat  and  to  drink  in  ? 
or  despise  ye  the  church  of  God,  and  shame  them  that 
have  not  ?  What  shall  I  say  to  you  ?  Shall  I  praise 
you  in  this  ?  I  praise  you  not." 

This  shows,  if  any  thing  can  show  it,  that  there  was 
a  possibility,  if  not  a  probability,  of  the  disciples  drink- 
ing a  little  to  excess  somewhere ;  and  Paul  only  cau- 
tions them  against  doing  it  on  the  occasion  of  celebrating 
the  "  Lord's  Supper." 

In  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  he  writes,  —  chapter 
5th,  18th  verse,— 

"  And  be  not  drunk  ivith  wine,  wherein  is  excess ; 
but  be  filled  with  the  Spirit." 

It  would  not  seem  that  any  comment  on  that  passage 
was  particularly  required. 


WHAT   THE   BIBLE   HAS   TO   SAY.  19 

Or,  to  return  to  the  Old  Testament  cases,  the  fact  is 
just  as  undeniable  that  the  wine  then  used,  otherwise 
alluded  to,  was  possessed  of  intoxicating  qualities.  See, 
in  proof  of  this,  1  Samuel,  1st  chapter,  12th  to  16th 
verses : — 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  she  continued  praying  be- 
fore the  Lord,  that  Eli  marked  her  mouth. 

"  Now  Hannah,  she  spake  in  her  heart ;  only  her  lips 
moved,  but  her  voice  was  not  heard ;  therefore  Eli 
thought  she  had  been  drunken. 

"  And  Eli  said  unto  her,  How  long  wilt  thou  be 
drunken  ?  Put  away  thy  wine  from  thee. 

"  And  Hannah  answered  and  said,  No,  my  lord ;  I 
am  a  woman  of  a  sorrowful  spirit :  I  have  drunk  nei- 
ther wine  nor  strong  drink,  but  have  poured  out  my 
soul  before  the  Lord." 

Then  read  in  Genesis,  chapter  9,  20th  and  21st 
verses :  — 

"And  Noah  began  to  be  an  husbandman,  and  he 
planted  a  vineyard ; 

"  And  he  drank  of  the  wine,  and  was  drunken;  and 
he  was  uncovered  within  his  tent." 

And  so  we  might  cite  passage  after  passage,  from  this 
part  of  the  sacred  Book  and  from  that,  under  the  old 
dispensation  and  under  the  new,  —  all  going  to  prove  the 
assertion  with  which  we  set  out,  and  which  it  has  been 
the  aim  of  the  present  chapter  to  establish.  The  case, 
we  consider,  is  already  made  out.  There  is  no  room 
whatever  for  disputation,  or  even  for  cavil.  If  a  man 
accepts  the  Bible  as  an  inspired  volume,  and  professes 


20  THE   EAMROD   BROKEN. 

to  find  within  its  pages  such  texts,  and  passages,  and 
teachings,  and  examples,  as  enable  him  to  fix  and  build 
up  his  spiritual  faith,  then  he  must  concede  full  as 
much  authority  to  the  volume  as  evidence  on  this  point, 
as  on  any  of  the  leading  points  of  his  doctrines  and 
faith.  You  are  not  at  liberty  to  torture  the  Scriptures 
to  your  own  personal  use  in  certain  instances,  and  then 
deny  their  significance  in  certain  other  instances.  If 
they  stand,  they  must  of  necessity  stand  together ;  but 
if  you  refuse  to  others  the  right  of  quoting  fairly  and 
properly  from  them,  you  must  utter  no  syllable  of 
complaint  if  you  are  told  that  you  are  debarred  the 
privilege  of  quoting  from  them  too.  Truth  is  as  much 
truth  for  one  side,  and  one  party,  as  it  is  for  another ; 
when  it  is  at  all  partial,  in  the  very  nature  of  things  it 
ceases  to  be  truth. 

And  what,  therefore,  does  the  testimony  of  the  Bible 
appear  to  uphold  in  this  matter  ?  That  the  use  of 
wine  in  moderation  not  only  does  no  harm,  but  even 
conduces  to  physical  good ;  that  it  denounces  the  im- 
moderate use  of  wine  without  stint,  deprecating  its 
influence  upon  all  whose  loss  of  self-control  drags  them 
down  into  a  condition  of  degradation ;  and,  finally, 
that  the  wine  drank  in  the  times  embraced  within  the 
scriptural  narrative,  was  as  likely  to  intoxicate  those 
who  took  it  in  excess,  as  any  of  the  wines  that  are  sold 
and  drank  in  these  days  of  their  unfortunate  deterio- 
ration. 

We  must,  in  this  view  of  the  evidence  before  us,  — 
enough  of  which  we  have  produced  to  make  the  whole 


WHAT  THE  BIBLE  HAS  TO   SAY.  21 

matter  conclusive  to  any  rational  mind,  —  reassert  the 
statement  with  which  we  set  out,  that  whoever  denies 
that  the  Bible  teaches  in  favor  of  a  moderate  use  of 
good  spirituous  liquors,  wines  in  particular,  is  an  open 
unbeliever  both  in  the  authenticity  of  the  Book,  and  in 
the  doctrines,  —  on  this,  as  well  as  on  other  subjects, — 
which  it  so  plainly  sets  forth. 
Let  anybody  refute  this  position  who  can. 


22  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 


III. 

THE   GOOD    AND    THE   EVIL. 

OUR  second  proposition  is  this  :  — 

"We  believe  it  pleased  God,  in  the  creation  of  all 
things,  to  place  before  man  good  and  evil,  and  to  make 
him  a  free  moral  agent  to  choose  between  the  two  ; 
knowing,  in  His  infinite  wisdom,  that  in  the  fulness  of 
time  man  would  be  led  to  choose  the  good  alone,  and 
so  the  evil  would  have  wrought  successfully  for  his 
discipline. 

We  believe,  further,  that  a  moderate  use  of  pure 
and  unadulterated  spirits  may  be  fairly  set  down  as 
one  of  the  comforts  of  the  present  life,  given  by  the 
Creator  himself,  to  whom  we  are  to  be  thankful  ac- 
cordingly ;  but  that  even  a  moderate  use  of  bad  and 
impure  liquors  is  an  evil  of  a  decided  character, 
which,  like  the  tree  of  knowledge  in  the  garden  of 
Eden,  should  be  abstained  from. 

We  also  believe  not  only  that  we  must  permit  evil 
to  grow  up  with  the  good,  even  as  tares  will  grow  with 
the  wheat,  —  but  that,  even  if  we  try  ever  so  much, 
we  cannot  prevent  it ;  since  God  alone  permits  temp- 
tations of  all  sorts  to  exist,  as  tests  and  trials  of  men's 
virtue,  the  result  to  lie  between  them  and  their  Maker. 

Let  us  show  this  by  citations  from  Scripture  history : 


THE  GOOD  AND  THE  EVIL.  23 

In  Genesis,  1st  chapter,  12th  verse,  it  is  narrated 
that  God,  after  creating  the  vegetable  world,  saw  that 
it  was  good :  — 

"  And  the  earth  brought  forth  grass,  and  herb  yield- 
ing seed  after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yielding  fruit, 
whose  seed  was  in  itself,  after  his  kind  ;  and  God  saw 
that  it  was  good." 

In  the  2d  chapter,  15-17th  verses,  it  reads,  — 

"  And  the  Lord  God  took  the  man,  and  put  him  into 
the  garden  of  Eden,  to  dress  it  and  to  keep  it.  • 

"  And  the  Lord  God  commanded  the  man,  saying, 
Of  every  tree  of  the  garden  thou  mayest  freely  eat ; 

"  But  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil, 
thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it ;  for  in  the  day  that  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die." 

Now,  here  it  is  shown  as  plainly  as  it  can  be,  that 
there  were  certain  indulgences  to  which  man  was  not 
permitted  to  give  the  rein.  God  had  made  every  thing 
that  was  made,  and  he  had  pronounced  it  "  good ; " 
and  yet  there  was  one  thing  —  a  tree  of  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil  —  which  man  was  not  to  approach. 
Why  he  was  thus  prohibited  from  plucking  and  eating 
the  fruit  of  it,  does  not  appear  ;  but  the  fact  stands  out 
clearly  enough  that  one  thing'  he  was  to  have  nothing 
at  all  to  do  with  ;  and  that  one  thing  had  been  cre- 
ated, too,  by  the  same  God  who  had  created  all  other 
things  ;  and  that  same  God,  furthermore,  had  pro- 
nounced it  "  good." 

So  that  it  is  undeniable,  even  looking  no  further 
into  the  Scriptures  for  testimony,  that  evil  was  per- 


24  THE  EAMROD   BROKEN. 

mitted  from  the  beginning,  and  is  permitted  till  this 
our  day.  What  the  divine  purposes  are  in  permitting 
the  existence  of  this  agent  in  human  progress  are  best 
known  to  the  All-wise  Creator.  It  is  enough  for  us  to 
accept  the  fact,  with  humility  and  trust,  as  we  find  it, 
using  it  as  a  means  of  growth,  but  never  as  an  excuse 
with  which  to  hide  our  own  deformities. 

Again,  let  us  read  further :  — 

In  the  16th  chapter  of  Proverbs,  4th  verse,  the  in- 
spired writer  says,  — 

"  The  Lord  hath  made  all  things  for  himself,  yea, 
even  the  wicked  for  the  day  of  evil." 

In  the  45th  chapter  of  Isaiah,  6th  and  7th  verses, 
we  read, — 

"  That  they  may  know  from  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
and  from  the  west,  that  there  is  none  beside  me  :  I  am 
the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else. 

"  I  form  the  light,  and  create  darkness :  I  make 
peace,  and  create  evil :  I  the  Lord  do  all  these  things." 

Here,  in  this  last  verse,  the  Lord  himself  confesses, 
through  the  inspired  writer,  that  he  creates  evil.  The 
purpose  we  must  be  content  to  let  slumber  within  the 
bosom  of  the  infinite  Jehovah.  How  evil  is  finally  to 
work  out  the  ends  of  good,  He  best  knows,  for  it  was 
his  plan  from  everlasting. 

It  is  written  also  in  the  24th  chapter  of  Joshua, 
15th  and  16th  verses,  — 

"And  if  it  seem  evil  unto  you  to  serve  the  Lord, 
choose  you  this  day  whom  ye  will  serve  ;  whether  the 
gods  which  your  fathers  served  that  were  on  the  other 


THE  GOOD  AND  THE  EVIL,  25 

side  of  the  flood,  or  the  gods  of  the  Amorites,  in  whose 
land  ye  dwell :  but  as  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will 
serve  the  Lord. 

"  And  the  people  answered  and  said,  God  forbid  that 
we  should  forsake  the  Lord  to  serve  other  gods." 

Showing  very  distinctly  and  conclusively,  that  in 
those  ancient  times  even  there  was  as  much  of  a  choice 
to  be  had  between  the  true  and  the  false,  the  good  and 
the  evil,  as  in  these  times  of  ours  :  and  that  the  false 
and  the  evil  were  just  as  much  permitted,  in  the  plan 
of  the  Infinite  One,  as  were  the  true  and  good,  we 
have  the  word  of  Jehovah  himself,  given  through  the 
pens  of  his  inspired  servants. 

The  New  Testament  publishes  a  new  dispensation, 
it  is  true  ;  in  that,  old  things  are  become  new  ;  the 
Mosaic  creed  has  worn  its  force  and  energy  away  ;  and 
a  better  scheme,  or  plan,  has  been  offered  in  its  place. 
Many,  therefore,  would  naturally  look  there  to  find 
some  new  announcement  in  relation  to  the  creation 
of  evil.  But  will  they  find  it  ?  We  think  not.  In- 
deed, we  know  not.  For  all  along  from  the  first  Gos- 
pel to  the  Revelation,  the  injunction  is  persisted  in, 
over  and  over  again,  to  resist  the  evil ;  to  overcome 
evil  with  good ;  to  be  perfect,  in  contradistinction  to 
imperfectnesss. 

Jesus  enjoins  it  upon  his  followers,  in  his  beautiful 
Sermon  on  the  Mount, — "  Be  ye  therefore  perfect, 
even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect."  And  this 
same  Jesus  was  the  descendant  of  the  ancient  order 
of  God's  chosen  servants,  traced  directly  down  from 
3 


26  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

David.  See  the  22d  chapter  of  Revelation,  verses  16 
and  17 :  — 

"  I  Jesus  have  sent  mine  angel  to  testify  unto  you 
these  things  in  the  churches.  I  am  the  root  and  the 
offspring  of  David,  and  the  bright  and  morning  star. 

"  And  the  Spirit  and  the  bride  say,  Come.  And  let 
him  that  heareth  say.  Come.  And  let  him  that  is 
athirst  come.  And  whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the 
water  of  life  freely." 

So  that  this,  after  all,  is  but  the  natural  progress 
and  procedure  of  a  single  plan  ;  which  plan,  of  creat- 
ing evil  to  offset  against  the  good  temporarily,  was  the 
work  of  Almighty  God  alone. 

The  Scriptures,  therefore,  are  our  abundant  warrant, 
we  think,  for  saying  that  God  permits  evil  in  the  world 
for  his  own  wise  purposes;  and  that  so  far  as  our 
intemperate  use  of  liquor  is  concerned,  it  is  an  evil 
which  is  allowed  of  His  own  infinite  wisdom.  We  may 
overcome  it  in  our  own  cases,  and  we  plainly  should  ; 
but  no  sweeping  acts  of  legislation  can  hope  to  outroot 
it  from  the  earth,  for  the  same  reason  that  no  mere 
acts  of  legislation  can  in  a  moment  effect  the  reforma- 
tion of  the  race.  This  must  be  done  by  themselves 
alone.  It  was  for  this  very  object  that  evil  was  thrown 
in  their  path  ;  and  they  hope  and  pray  in  vain,  if  they 
hope  and  pray  that  some  external  power  will  come 
miraculously,  and  on  a  sudden,  to  their  rescue.  It  is 
in  this  way  of  self-conflict,  and  self-discipline,  waging 
on  his  own  part  a  perpetual  warfare  with  evil,  and 
teaching  himself  daily  to  love  more  and  more  the  good, 


THE  GOOD  AND  THE  EVIL.  27 

that  man  is  to  be  redeemed  from  the  clutches  of  sin  ; 
not  by  the  interposition  of  arbitrary  legislative  enact- 
ments, that  have  no  root  in  life  or  society,  but  through 
his  own  continued  effort,  God  helping  him  to  the  tri- 
umphant end. 


28  THE  EAMBOD  BROKEN. 


IV. 

PURE  AND   IMPURE. 

IN  the  previous  chapter,  we  said  that  pure  wines  and 
spirits,  when  properly  used,  were  in  no  sense  harmful, 
and  in  no  way  tended  to  the  degradation  of  the  soul. 
We  stated  that  wine  —  when  it  was  wine,  and  noth- 
ing more  —  is  one  of  the  God-given  comforts  of  life, 
to  be  used  as  all  other  blessings  are  used,  and  to  be  ac- 
cepted with  sincere  expressions  of  gratitude. 

It  will,  of  course,  startle  canting  moralists  and  Phar- 
isees, who  themselves  understand  best  how  to  distrust 
all  statements  from  knowing  the  hollowness  of  their 
own,  —  it  will  startle  such,  we  say,  to  hear  sentiments 
of  this  character  openly  and  sincerely  avowed ;  but  if 
we  were  not  sincere  in  them,  believing  them  to  be 
really  tenable  in  the  long  run  of  human  experience, 
we  certainly  should  not  now  give  them  public  expres- 
sion. 

It  is  high  time,  in  our  opinion,  that  men  said  what 
they  thought,  and  left  off  this  wretchedly  mean  habit  of 
deferring  to  others,  and  especially  to  the  clamors  of 
nothing  but  popular  prejudice,  for  fear  of  putting  their 
own  business,  or  their  own  standing,  or  their  own  social 
position,  in  peril.  Were  this  constitutional  timidity  to 
be  overcome,  and  were  men  to  utter  frankly  and  ear- 


PURE  AND   IMPURE.  29 

nestly  just  what  their  honest  convictions  were,  especially 
upon  this  long-vexed  subject,  we  should  hear  a  very 
different  story  from  that  which  now  fills  the  public  ear, 
and  catch  every  where  the  tone  of  a  much  higher,  and 
truer,  and  healthier  public  opinion.  "What  can  so-called 
public  opinion  amount  to,  if  they  who  are  supposed  to 
create  it  stand  in  jeopardy  all  the  time,  unless  they 
think  and  speak  as  they  are  bidden  to  speak?  Of 
what  material,  worth  mentioning,  does  it  consist,  if  it 
is  already  made  up  for  the  mass  obsequiously  to  sub- 
scribe to  ?  How  is  it  an  opinion  at  all,  if  it  amounts  to 
nothing  but  the  rehearsal  of  the  prejudices  of  a  few 
prominent  men,  styling  themselves  leaders,  but  in  re- 
ality acting  the  parts  of  tyrants  ? 

If,  therefore,  our  opinion  about  wine  and  its  uses  is 
to  be  scouted,  and  scoffed  at,  and  hooted  out  of  pop- 
ular consideration,  because  it  is  an  entirely  new,  if 
not  indeed  a  very  bold  thing  for  any  one  to  express 
such  an  opinion  in  these  latter  days,  —  it  only  demon- 
strates the  fact  that,  after  all,  it  is  not  public  opinion 
that  is  opposed  to  us  and  our  position,  but  nothing 
more  than  a  tyrannical  public  prejudice ;  and  as  between 
the  tyranny  of  such  a  prejudice,  and  such  a  tyranny 
as  that  exercised  over  free  expression  by  the  Louis  Na- 
poleons and  King  Bombas  of  the  world,  we  confess  we 
discern  very  little  indeed  to  choose. 

They  who  are  not  ready  and  willing  therefore  to  re- 
spect the  utterance  of  convictions  opposed  in  the  most 
radical  senses  to  their  own,  should  see  that  they  are 
not  yet  well  grounded  in  their  own,  else  they  could  pa- 
3* 


30  THE   EAMROD   BROKEN. 

tiently  hear  every  thing  that  was  to  be  said  on  the 
other  side,  knowing  that  the  whole  had  already  been 
thoroughly  and  finally  considered  by  them.  For  no 
problem  is  carried  forward  to  a  successful  solution,  that 
has  not  already  been  subjected  to  every  twist  and  turn 
that  could  arise  in  the  process ;  and  no  opinion  has 
been  really  established,  even  for  the  time  being,  unless 
it  has  fought  its  way  successfully  through  the  smoke 
and  fire  of  conflict.  And  if  we  hear  a  man  abusing 
another  simply  because  that  other  one  takes  the  liberty 
to  disagree  with  him,  and  to  candidly  state  the  points 
and  terms  of  that  disagreement,  we  feel  very  confident 
that  he  is,  in  the  first  place,  in  training  for  a  bully,  and, 
in  the  second  place,  quite  destitute  of  any  individual 
convictions  on  his  own  part.  For  abuse  may  be  thrown 
to  and  fro  till  the  sun  goes  down  on  the  wrath  of  the 
two  parties ;  but  reason,  and  persuasion,  and  argu- 
ment, and  facts,  and  reflection,  —  these  are  invariably 
brought  out  into  use  only  by  those  whose  opinions 
were  built  upon  their  reliable  basis  in  the  first  place. 

We  assert,  then,  what  is  only  true,  —  at  least  in  our 
own  judgment,  —  when  we  repeat  that  a  moderate  and 
proper  use  of  good  and  pure  spirits  is  not  harmful,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  both  serviceable  and  a  blessing.  It 
has  been  so  from  the  earliest  days  of  recorded  history ; 
and  since  those  days,  human  nature  has  not  so  much 
changed  as  to  put  the  use  of  wine  and  spirits  out  of 
the  limitations  either  of  comfort  or  necessity.  Man  is 
not  materially  better  now  than  in  the  days  of  the  pa- 
triarchs and  prophets,  when  David  and  Solomon  drank 


PURE   AND   IMPURE.  31 

wine,  sometimes  even  to  excess.  And  they  who  con- 
tinually refer  to  the  Old  Testament  records  for  the  de- 
fence of  certain  other  doctrines,  ought  to  be  the  very 
last  ones  to  decline  the  use  of  the  same  records  for  aid 
in  the  establishment  of  our  opinion. 

Jesus  turned  water  into  wine.     Every  body  remem- 
bers the  beautiful  line,  — 

"The  conscious  water  saw  its  God,  and  blushed." 

Paul  every  where  enjoins  it  upon  the  brethren  not  to 
drink  wine  to  excess,  and  especially  not  to  turn  their 
communion  feasts  into  revellings ;  proof  sufficient,  one 
would  suppose,  that  wine  was  used,  and  that  it  was 
abused,  just  as  now.  It  is  the  abuse  that  Paul  warned 
others  against ;  it  is  the  abuse  which  we  sincerely  de- 
plore now.  And  we  conclude  that  we  may  be  perfectly 
truthful  and  consistent  in  thus  deploring  such  a  wide- 
spread evil,  and  still  believe  in  both  the  possibility  and 
the  propriety  of  using  what  leads  to  the  evil  in  moder- 
ation. All  positive  evil  is  only  an  excess ;  the  trouble 
is,  we  are  not  yet  become  masters  of  ourselves,  and  so 
are  led  away  by  powers  which  we  ought  either  to  repel 
or  control,  —  each  one  should  best  know  for  himself 
which. 

Wine  is  a  blessing,  in  itself.  The  universal  use  of 
it  by  the  race  shows  at  least  as  much  as  that.  The 
ancients  deified  it,  worshipping  it  under  the  name  of 
Bacchus.  All  along  in  history,  —  the  history  of  the 
church  and  of  the  people,  —  wine  has  been  freely  and 
openly  used.  The  culture  of  the  vine  has  for  a  long 


32  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

time  formed  one  of  the  most  important  items  of  indus- 
try with  several  nations.  God  has  given  his  rains  to 
descend  and  his  suns  to  shine  upon  such  a  work  as  this  ; 
and  at  no  time  do  we  hear  that  he  pronounced  any 
curse  upon  the  occupation,  like  that  which  was  hurled 
against  the  people  of  Noah's  generation,  or  the  wicked 
and  abandoned  cities  of  the  plain.  Priests  have  drank 
it,  even  as  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  of  old  drank  it. 
It  lias  strengthened  the  hearts  and  cheered  the  hopes 
of  wearied  men  every  where.  It  has  proved  a  blessing 
to  many,  even  if  it  has  been  a  curse  to  others.  But 
shall  the  blessing  be  destroyed,  be  rooted  out,  be  en- 
tirely cast  away  and  trampled  upon,  because  its  abuse 
becomes  a  curse  ?  Shall  we  morosely  refuse  to  see  the 
sun  shine  in  the  morning,  because  the  west  may  be  lurid 
with  terrific  lightnings  before  night  ?  Are  we  never  to 
learn  how  to  distinguish  between  the  good  and  the 
evil  ?  and  to  love  the  good  for  its  own  sake,  and  to  hate 
the  evil  for  its  own  sake  also?  Must  we  put  every 
thing  that  is  desirable  in  life  beneath  our  feet,  spurning 
the  good  gifts  of  God  in  a  spirit  of  morosest  piety,  be- 
cause those  good  gifts  are  capable  of  perversion  ?  Are 
we  so  ready  to  confess  that  we  have  neither  the  power 
nor  the  inclination  to  prefer  the  good  to  the  evil,  the 
pure  and  true  to  the  bad  and  false,  and  therefore  insist 
on  a  style  of  goodness  and  purity  whose  condition  is, 
that  evil  arid  falsehood  shall  not  be  suffered  to  come 
into  competition  with  it  ? 

What  a  sad  state  of  morals  is  that,  to  be  sure,  which 
requires  to  be  fenced  off  by  itself,  lest  it  cannot  with- 


PURE   AND   IMPURE.  33 

stand  the  wiles  of  temptation,  nor  overcome,  in  an  open 
contest,  the  opposing  powers  of  evil !  Such  purity 
stands  not  upon  its  own  established  character,  but 
merely  upon  the  protection  of  worldly  authority  and 
force ;  and  that  authority,  in  turn,  rests  upon  such 
worthless  foundations  as  are  composed  of  ambition,  of 
desire  for  power,  and  of  personal  vanity  and  conceit. 
If  purity  can  exist  on  such  terms,  it  must  be  the  purity 
of  ice,  that  glitters  only  to  repel  the  soul  of  the  ob- 
server. 

Recollect,  too,  that  we  said  good  wine,  as  well  as 
wine  in  moderation.  Not  logwood  wine,  nor  wine  with 
the  fruity  flavor  imparted  by  burned  cockroaches,  nor 
yet  whiskey  wine,  nor  doctored  wine  of  any  sort,  but 
the  good,  pure  juice  of  the  grape,  pulpy  and  juicy, 
luscious  and  sparkling,  an  inspirer  as  well  as  a  consoler 
and  comforter,  a  friend  to  cheer  one  and  to  warm  his 
soul  with  big  thoughts  and  sentiments.  Such  wines 
can  be  made  even  now ;  they  are  made  by  the  millions 
of  gallons  on  the  sunny  banks  of  our  great  western 
rivers.  And  the  more  of  them  there  are  made,  the  bet- 
ter will  be  the  result  for  the  nation  at  large.  They 
will  help  to  drive  out  stupefying  and  brutalizing  excess 
faster  than  any  other  means.  Their  manufacture,  in 
fact,  is  but  the  first  step  in  purification  where  purifica- 
tion is  chiefly  needed ;  and  out  of  that  self-same  step 
proceeds  reform  of  the  most  hopeful,  because  thorough 
and  substantial,  character. 


34  THE  KAMEOD  BROKEN. 


V. 

OUE   TRIED    ARTICLE    OF    FAITH. 

WE  entertain  still  further  ideas  upon  this  subject, 
and  proceed  to  submit  them  thus :  — 

We  believe  human  beings  to  be  at  least  capable  of 
self-government ;  and  that,  as  a  necessary  consequence, 
the  less  legislation  one  can  get  along  with,  the  better  ; 
and  that,  if  even  one  tenth  part  of  the  time  and  money 
had  been  devoted  to  the  thorough  and  much-needed 
purification  of  spirits,  that  has  been  spent  in  the  vain 
endeavors  to  destroy  it  as  an  article  either  of  use  or 
commerce,  we  should  have  vastly  more  real,  true,  reli- 
able, and  consistent  temperance  men  about  us  than 
we  have  at  the  present  day. 

Now,  there  is  a  great  deal  more  in  this  than  we  sup- 
pose any  mere  fanatics,  or  credulous  partisans,  —  who 
follow  their  leaders  blindly  through  hedge  and  through 
ditch,  —  will  be  gracious  enough  to  allow.  But  we 
care  little  enough  whether  such  men  are  willing  to 
admit  there  is  sense  in  an  opponent's  statements  and 
arguments,  or  not.  Truth,  thank  God,  does  not  de- 
pend upon  the  present  condition  of  this  or  that  man's 
prejudices  ;  it  is  self-sustaining,  relying  on  itself  alone. 
And  whether  we  are  ready  to  come  over  to  the  side  of 
the  truth  to-day,  or  are  determined  obstinately  to  hold 


OUR  THIRD   ARTICLE   OF   FAITH.  35 

out  till  to-morrow,  —  it  makes  no  difference  ;  the  truth 
does  not  suffer,  —  only  ourselves. 

Let  us  look  at  the  first  branch  of  our  proposition. 
Are  human  beings  capable  of  self-government,  or  are 
they  not  ?  If  not,  then  say  so  at  once,  and  resolve 
government  back  into  its  elements  of  aristocracy,  mon- 
archy, and  despotism.  Tear  away  your  banners,  and 
badges,  and  false  emblazonments,  that  proclaim  this 
land  to  be,  in  any  sense,  a  land  of  freedom,  and  this 
people  a  free  people.  Run  down  your  flags,  stars, 
stripes,  and  all.  Let  us  at  least  not  pretend  to  be  free, 
while  we  are  crouching,  trembling  slaves.  Let  us  no 
longer  play  at  freedom,  like  mere  children,  while  we 
are  all  the  time  afraid  to  take  the  charge  of  our  own 
personal  liberties. 

But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  men  are  capable  of  self- 
government,  then  we  ask  that  the  theory  be  thoroughly 
tried.  It  is  time  that  ambitious  and  wrong-headed 
reformers  —  so  called  by  themselves  —  should  give 
place  to  the  people  themselves  ;  that  they  should  cease 
trying  to  blindfold  that  people,  and  lead  them  around 
by  the  nose.  We  say  not  a  syllable  against  their  giving 
the  masses  all  the  instruction  they  are  competent  and 
qualified  to  give  ;  but  to  attempt  to  force  the  masses 
by  any  thumb-screw  process,  as  they  used  to  do  in  the 
days  of  the  devilish  Inquisition,  is  a  great  deal  more 
than  merely  preposterous. 

There  are  two  sorts  of  tyranny  in  a  free  country,  or 
a  country  nominally  free  —  the  tyranny  of  a  bigotry, 
or  fanaticism,  that  means  only  to  carry  out  its  own 


36  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

purposes,  and  those  purposes  the  moulding,  and  shap- 
ing, and  directing  public  sentiment,  even  against  its 
own  wish  and  will,  and  when  it  amounts  to  nothing 
higher  than  offensive  prejudice;  —  and  that  other  tyr- 
anny, not  more  odious  or  fearful,  nor  any  more  dan- 
gerous to  the  liberties  and  general  well-being  of  the 
masses,  —  the  tyranny  of  a  howling  mob  ;  set  on  to 
their  blind  work,  too,  by  men  who  affect  purity,  and 
sobriety,  and  goodness,  and  who  employ  these  hollow 
and  temporary  professions  only  to  excite  the  masses  to 
do  their  own  selfish  work.  The  one  kind  of  tyranny 
is  cold-blooded,  soulless,  chilling,  and  killing  to  any 
nation  ;  the  other  is  a  fiery  tempest,  a  perpetual  erup- 
tion of  volcanic  flames,  revolution  without  end,  a 
never-ending  overturning  without  a  purpose.  Bigots 
control  and  shape  the  one,  and  ambitious  men  the 
other.  It  is  well  for  the  people  to  see  to  it  that  neither 
gains  a  permanent  ascendency. 

Now,  if  it  be  admitted  that,  in  this  country  at  least, 
men  are  capable  of  what  is  generally  thought  to  be 
self-government,  we  insist,  on  behalf  of  the  people  to 
whom  this  concession  is  granted,  that  they  be  permit- 
ted to  practise  a  little  upon  their  rights.  We  declare, 
on  their  behalf,  and  in  their  name,  that  neither  bigots 
nor  tricky  legislators — neither  self-opinionated  and 
narrow-minded  fanatics,  nor  selfish  and  plotting  poli- 
ticians —  shall  be  allowed  to  take  this  right  of  self-gov- 
ernment out  of  their  hands.  The  first  seek  to  do  it 
by  telling  the  people,  in  solemn  phrase  and  melancholy 
voice,  that  they  know  better  than  every  body  else  ;  that 


OUR  THIRD   ARTICLE  OF  FAITH.  37 

they  have  gone  farther  into  the  matter,  have  thought 
more  about  it,  and  have  been  able  to  arrive  at  better 
conclusions,  than  themselves  ;  —  the  last  seek  to  do  it 
by  getting  control  of  the  government  machinery,  —  at 
first  in  towns  and  villages,  and  then  in  entire  States  ; 
using  their  heartless  professions  on  behalf  of  straight 
morality  as  a  lever,  by  which  to  pry  up  the  forces  of 
government,  and  advance  nothing  but  their  own  per- 
sonal aims  and  ends.  Hence,  were  the  former  to  have 
their  own  way  without  check  or  curtailment,  they 
would  very  soon  destroy  their  power  by  its  very  im- 
practicability ;  they  would  prove  palpably  enough  the 
indescribable  folly  of  intrusting  power  to  the  hands  of 
mere  theorizers,  and  idle  dreamers,  and  talking  vaga- 
rists.  And  it  is  seen,  too,  that  as  soon  as  the  latter 
obtain  control  of  the  government,  and  are  in  full  pos- 
session of  the  machinery  whose  use  is  what  they  were 
in  quest  of,  they  readily  forget  all  their  zeal  and  loud- 
sounding  professions  on  behalf  of  certain  grand  moral 
principles,  and  become  as  dead  to  the  further  operation 
of  those  principles  as  if  they  had  never  heard  that  they 
existed. 

Almost  every  body  admits  that  we  are  legislated 
nearly  to  death.  It  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to 
go  to  the  "  General  Court,"  for  intellectual  capital  is 
not  the  article  chiefly  in  demand  when  candidates  are 
hunted  after,  or  selected  from.  Collect  a  body  of  sev- 
eral hundred  uneasy,  blindly  aspiring,  notoriety-seek- 
ing, uninstructed,  and  unreflecting  men  into  a  single 
legislature,  and  the  likelihood  is,  that  if  they  are 
4 


38  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

cooped  up  together  long  enough,  they  will  begin  to  do 
mischief.  They  must  go  to  tinkering ;  and  not  finding 
the  tools  to  work  with,  which  are  to  be  had  at  their 
hand  at  home,  they  work  with  such  as  the  State  fur- 
nishes them.  Ambitious  leaders,  themselves  acted  on 
by  another  influence,  and  not  seeing  either  calmly  or 
clearly,  begin  to  manipulate  them  ;  tell  them  what  the 
"  awakened  moral  sense  "  of  the  community  demands 
at  this  epoch  of  time,  and  in  the  middle  of  this  much 
abused  nineteenth  century  ;  declare  to  them  that  all 
moral  reforms,  to  be  thorough  and  permanent,  must 
be  supported  by  the  force  and  authority  of  the  laws,  — 
which  is  an  open  and  designed  untruth,  since  public 
morality  has  ever  made  its  way  above  law,  without  the 
assistance  of  legal  authority,  and  entirely  clear  of  the 
spirit  that  gives  to  laws  their  only  vitality  and  char- 
acter. 

So  the  would-be  honest,  half-blind,  and  altogether 
unreflecting  body  of  our  legislators  have  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  used  by  these  leaders,  who,  in  their  turn, 
affect  to  represent  and  speak  for  the  higher  moral 
sentiment  of  the  community  ;  and  it  is  to  be  thought- 
fully observed,  too,  that  the  more  earnestly  they  claim 
to  be  the  peculiar  friends  and  defenders  of  morality, 
the  more  rigorous,  bigoted,  uncharitable,  tyrannical, 
and  thoroughly  fm-moral  become  the  statutes  with 
which  they  experiment  from  year  to  year  upon  the 
public  temper. 

If  our  legislators  knew  better  for  what  they  are 
summoned  every  year  to  the  State  capitols,  they  would 


OUR   THIRD   ARTICLE   OP   FAITH.  39 

be  a  great  deal  less  likely  to  occupy  their  time  with 
these  odious,  impracticable,  fanatical,  and  bigoted  laws 
that  now  encumber  the  statute  book,  set  whole  com- 
munities by  the  ears  that  were  hitherto  at  peace,  and 
materially  retard  the  real  progress  of  the  reforms  of 
the  time.  Satan,  as  in  the  old  hymn  we  learned  in 
our  youth,  still  finds  some  mischief  for  "  idle  hands  to 
do."  If  it  is  not  one  thing,  it  is  another.  If  it  is  not 
in  Church,  it  is  in  State.  And  since  the  constitutions 
of  our  several  States,  as  well  as  of  our  common  coun- 
try, interdict  the  interference  of  legislatures  with  mat- 
ters of  religion,  the  latter  vent  their  spite  on  the  inter- 
diction by  meddling  with  the  morals.  Matters  of 
conscience  are  presumed  to  be  untouched,  so  far  as 
worshipping  God  is  concerned  ;  but  when  it  comes  to 
what  one  thinks  he  ought,  or  ought  not,  to  drink , — 
ah,  it  is  an  altogether  different  affair. 

The  less  legislation  we  have,  the  better  for  us.  No- 
body, who  has  ever  observed  and  reflected  much  on 
this  subject,  will  pretend  to  dispute  it.  The  fact  is, 
we  require  little  more  than  great  principles  to  respect, 
as  citizens  of  a  single  commonwealth  ;  a  multiplicity 
of  rules,  in  the  form  of  statutes,  perplexes,  confuses, 
begets  contradictions,  and  engenders  disrespect.  Over- 
government  is  full  as  bad  as  no-government.  Where 
you  have  your  statute  books  crammed  and  stuffed  with 
enactments,  they  necessarily  require  tinkering  and 
cobbling  every  successive  year ;  the  execution  of  any 
of  them  is  rendered  so  precarious  and  uncertain  as  to 
subject  them  all  to  a  species  of  contempt,  which,  in  its 


40  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

turn,  grows  bolder  and  more  open  every  year.  Then 
one  statute  varies  with  another,  or  contradicts  it  out- 
right ;  or  one  clause  of  one  act  militates  with  another 
clause  of  another  act ;  and  between  two  such  stools, 
the  original  purpose  and  intent  of  the  framers  falls 
squat  upon  the  floor.  And  again,  the  more  legislation 
there  is  had,  the  more  there  must  be  ;  the  more  need- 
less excitement  there  is  in  the  community,  —  for  the 
one  body  acts  upon  the  other ;  and  the  less  likely  are 
the  people  at  large  to  understand  the  spirit,  the  prin- 
ciples, or  the  true  purposes  of  the  statutes  with  which 
their  willing  backs  are  saddled. 

Temperance  legislation,  to  the  extent  to  which  it  has 
of  recent  years  been  pushed  by  designing  and  reckless 
men,  has  shown  itself  a  perfect  failure.  We  make  the 
assertion  with  a  full  knowledge  of  its  meaning.  We 
point  to  the  failure  of  temperance  laws  to  diminish  the 
consumption  of  the  article,  to  secure  their  own  impar- 
tial execution,  to  win  the  solid  respect  of  the  commu- 
nity for  either  their  intrinsic  wisdom  or  practicability, 
to  help  the  cause  of  temperance  itself,  or  to  aid  the 
progress  of  reform  and  personal  purification.  We 
point  to  the  confessions  of  candid  temperance  legisla- 
tors themselves,  to  those  who  have  looked  deep  and 
seen  far  into  the  subject,  who  now  admit  with  perfect 
freedom  that  the  law  can  do  nothing  to  help  on  a  moral 
cause  with  its  rigid  authority,  —  against  which  all  men 
alike  are  given  by  nature  to  protest,  —  but  that  re- 
course must  be  had  once  more  to  suasion  and  argu- 
ment, to  instruction  and  sympathy,  to  example  and  to 


OUR   THIRD   ARTICLE   OP   FAITH.  41 

precept.  In  fact,  they  even  agree  that  ground  has 
been  lost  by  the  hazardous  and  unadvised  experiment, 
which  it  will  take  a  long  time,  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, for  them  to  recover. 

What  we  are  going  to  add  to  these  remarks  is  simply 
this  :  that  if  as  much  time,  and  labor,  and  expense  had 
been  given  to  the  purification  of  wines  and  spirits,  and 
to  securing  the  proper  and  licensed  sale  of  only  those 
wines  and  spirits  that  were  purified,  as  has  been  given 
to  wrangling,  and  confusion,  and  heated  passions,  and 
selfish  plans  and  projects,  and  fanatical  denunciation, 
a  vast  deal  more  would  have  been  done  for  the  cause 
of  temperance  and  morals  than  has  been  done  already, 
and  a  larger  measure  of  charity  and  love  would  have 
existed  to  sweeten  the  present  character  of  society. 
This  is  even  so.  Poor  liquors  have  raised  up  enemies 
even  to  the  cause  of  temperance,  where,  had  the  liquors 
used  been  pure  and  unadulterated,  the  same  enemies 
would  have  been  consistent  and  determined  friends. 

Suppose  theorists  begin  and  test  the  value  of  their 
theories  by  well-ascertained  facts  like  these.  "What 
would  be  the  possible  harm,  if  they  came  out  of  their 
card  houses  and  tried  the  rough  airs  of  common  life  ? 
Even  if  they  do  not  yet  fully  know  the  foregoing  to  be 
facts,  is  there  not  reason  enough  for  their  pausing  to 
soberly  investigate  for  themselves  whether  they  are,  or 
not  ?  If,  however,  they  still  persist  in  refusing,  they 
place  themselves  in  the  position  of  persons  who  think 
to,  first,  erect  their  pet  theory,  and  then  force  the  rest 
of  the  world  to  jam  and  squeeze  themselves  into  it. 
4* 


42  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

If  the  truth  is  all  they  want,  and  their  desire  is  only  to 
advance  the  highest  interests  of  society  and  the  human 
race,  they  will  not  refuse  first  to  investigate  and  estab- 
lish facts,  let  them  support  their  preconceived  theories 
or  not.  And  that  is  all  we  ask  of  them.  They  ask 
as  much  of  us,  and  we  are  ready  to  answer  to  their 
appeal. 


THE  LICENSE  SYSTEM.  43 


VI. 

THE  LICENSE  SYSTEM. 

WE  entertain  another  idea  about  this  business,  —  an 
idea  that  is  based  upon  nothing  but  the  experience  of 
society  in  reference  to  the  sale  and  use  of  ardent  spirits, 
and  upon  what,  all  things  considered,  is  the  only  prac- 
tical system  that  can  be  put'  and  kept  in  operation. 
That  idea  is  just  this  :  — 

That  since  it  has  been  shown,  and  admitted  on  all 
sides,  to  be  an  impossibility  to  prevent  the  manufac- 
ture, sale,  and  use  of  spirituous  liquors,  it  is  proper 
and  prudent  that  their  sale  be  intrusted  to  the  respon- 
sibility of  any  good  men,  who  shall  be  authorized  and 
privileged  to  sell  only  such  productions  as  are  pure 
and  unadulterated,  and  to  only  such  persons  as  will 
make  a  proper  use  of  them. 

This  plan,  of  course,  includes  and  provides  for  all 
the  necessary  restrictions  ;  such  as  that,  for  example, 
of  furnishing  sufficient  bonds  for  the  proper  use  of  the 
privilege,  which  is  the  first  general  restriction  which 
any  community  would  be  likely  to  impose.  We  under- 
stand at  once  with  what  sort  of  nap-worn  objections 
this  license  plan  is  met,  —  such  as,  that  it  only  proves 
the  right  to  prohibit  by  the  same  arguments  that  it 
claims  the  right  to  license,  —  and  others  of  equal  force 


44  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

and  consistency.  But  those  objections  have  every  one 
of  them  been  answered,  long  ago.  It  is  easy  to  reca- 
pitulate the  replies,  rejoinders,  and  rebutters  ;  but  to 
what  end  ?  If  a  case  is  but  fairly  stated,  —  especially 
a  case  of  this  character, —  all  argument  upon  it  seems 
to  be  thrown  away  ;  it  is  ammunition  wasted ;  the  rea- 
sons proffered  possess  no  sort  of  living  force,  let  them 
be  ever  so  conclusive,  but  are  as  dead  as  hay. 

A  traffic  may  be  licensed  and  regulated  with  perfect 
consistency,  and  yet  be  protected  from  the  assaults  of 
those  who  demand  its  absolute  prohibition.  That  is 
plain  to  every  one.  It  is  nowise  inconsistent  for  legis- 
lative bodies  to  set  about  regulating  a  traffic  in  articles 
which  they  have  no  authority  or  right  to  prohibit. 
They  who  argue  from  the  one  to  the  other,  argue  with- 
out a  proper  understanding  of  the  subject.  To  set 
limits  to  any  kind  of  trade  is  perfectly  legitimate  and 
proper,  on  the  part  of  legislatures  ;  but  to  positively 
prohibit  a  trade  that  has  its  foundations  in  the  inalien- 
able rights  of  persons,  — •  rights  that  are  every  where 
recognized,  too,  by  the  laws,  being  no  less  than  the 
rights  of  property,  —  is  pushing  the  theory  considerably 
farther  than  it  will  fairly  go.  And  so  it  will  at  all 
times  be  found.  It  has  been  so  in  the  past,  and  will 
continue  to  be  so  in  the  future.  Much  as  the  world 
acknowledges  its  need  of  reformation  and  purification, 
it  will  never  consent  to  sacrifice  a  single  one  of  its  fun- 
damental rights  to  secure  such  reforms,  on  the  basis 
proposed  by  mere  theorizers.  It  will  unequivocally  re- 
fuse to  place  its  dearest  interests  and  inalienable  privi- 


THE   LICENSE   SYSTEM.  45 

leges  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men,  not  better  qualified 
than  the  mass,  who  pretend  that  with  themselves  alone 
rests  the  progress,  or  salvation,  of  the  community. 

That  spirits,  of  one  kind  and  another,  will  continue 
to  be  manufactured,  nobody,  who  has  a  head  on  his 
shoulders  and  knows  at  the  same  time  what  is  in  it, 
will  presume  to  question.  Spirits  have  always  been  an 
article  of  commerce,  within  and  between  nations,  and 
it  is  very  probable  they  always  will  be  ;  at  least,  so  long 
as  our  generation  lasts,  and  the  one  that  is  likely  to 
come  after ;  -and  since  they  form  a  staple  of  trade  and 
commerce,  they  will  be  produced  by  the  vine-grower 
and  the  distiller  ;  just  as  long  as  there  is  a  demand  for 
them  on  the  part  of  the  community,  just  so  long  they 
will  continue  to  be  manufactured.  The  law  of  demand 
and  supply  holds  as  steadily  in  this  matter  as  in  all 
others. 

Now,  there  may  be  one  way  by  which  it  is  possible 
to  cut  off  the  production,  and  but  a  single  one  that  we 
can  think  of;  and  that  is,  by  cutting  off  the  demand. 
Once  destroy  that,  and  the  problem  is  solved  in  no 
time.  Only  put  a  stop  to  the  taste,  thirst,  desire  —  or 
whatever  you  choose  to  style  it  —  for  wines,  spirits,  and 
liquors  of  the  various  sorts,  and  you  have  overset  the 
entire  system  of  manufacture,  together  with  its  broad- 
spreading  ramifications  of  purchase  and  sale,  which 
visibly  assist  in  the  aggregate  of  trade  and  commerce. 
•But  how  are  you  going  to  stop  the  demand  ?  That  is 
the  question  ;  and  it  pinches  as  hard  as  any  other  ques- 
tion that  a  professed  reformer  could  have  put  to  him. 


46  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

Well,  he  directly  answers,  we  will  stop  it  by  cutting 
off  the  supply.  Ah  !  but  this  is  the  wrong  way  to  go 
to  work  !  This  is  only  attempting,  and  attempting  in 
vain,  too,  a  reversal  of  the  laws  of  nature.  You  begin 
at  the  wrong  end,  sir  !  The  plan  will  not  be  found  to 
work.  The  thing  cannot  be  done.  If,  however,  you 
insist  in  carrying  forward  your  attempt,  convinced  of 
the  final  efficacy  of  a  theory  which,  of  all  others,  looks 
most  impracticable  and  unpromising  even  on  paper,  — 
there  is  but  one  resort  left  you  by  which  you  are  to 
accomplish  it ;  and  that  is  by  actual,  naked,  unqualified 
force.  In  the  first  place,  you  will  be  obliged  to  tell 
people  that  they  must  change  their,  tastes  ;  must  make 
up  their  minds  not  to  drink  wine  or  spirits  at  all ;  must 
agree  to  confess  themselves  fools  and  drunkards  here- 
tofore, and  timid  converts  to  your  particular  theory 
now.  You  must  make  them  turn  a  short  corner  in 
their  lives,  such  as  they  never  turned  before,  and  cannot, 
and  will  not,  turn  even  now.  You  must  effect  such  a 
radical  change  in  their  physical,  yes,  and  in  their  spir- 
itual natures,  too,  that  they  will  scarcely  be  conscious 
afterwards  of  their  own  identity.  You  must,  in  fact, 
teach  them  what  they  do  not  now  know,  and  what  they 
will  be  very  certain  to  forget  just  as  soon  as  they  do 
know  it,  —  that  the  use  of  spirits  and  wines  is  hurtful 
to  them  in  even  moderate  quantities,  and  that  to  taste 
is  contamination. 

And  then,  after  you  have  succeeded  in  setting  up 
such  a  theory  in  the  prejudices  and  fears,  rather  than 
in  the  intelligent  minds,  of  men,  you  are  compelled  to 


THE  LICENSE   SYSTEM.  47 

sustain  and  support  it  by  stringent,  irrational,  vindic- 
tive, and  thoroughly  hateful  legislative  enactments. 
In  other  words,  your  ideas  of  the  crime  and  sin  of  using 
liquor  in  any  shape  are  to  be  backed  up,  and  put  in 
operation,  by  the  sheer  force  of  law,  acting  alone,  op- 
posed both  to  the  instinctive  and  traditionary  convic- 
tions of  the  human  mind,  generating  a  class  of  spies, 
and  eaves-droppers,  and  men  of  mean  malice,  to  assist 
in  carrying  it  out  into  even  imperfect  execution. 

And  this  is  the  only  solitary  method  by  which  the 
sale  and  supply  of  liquors  can  hope  to  be  stopped,  — 
by  cutting  off  the  demand.  And  the  success  of  attempts 
of  this  character  in  certain  localities,  in  the  past,  may 
be  taken  as  a  basis  on  which  to  predicate  the  probable 
success  of  similar  attempts  in  the  future.  Let  those 
who  have  enjoyed  a  not  over-promising  experience  in 
this  direction  come  forward  now  and  say  what,  in  their 
candid  estimation,  are  the  chances  of  success  for  similar 
attempts  hereafter. 

Granting,  therefore,  as  it  must  be  granted  by  those 
who  pretend  to  any  practical  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
that  spirits  are,  and  always  will  be,  one  object  of  de- 
mand and  use  by  the  community,  to  whatsoever  state 
of  religious  exaltation  and  civilized  refinement  they 
•may  have  arrived,  it  is  only  necessary  that  we  should 
consult  common  sense  in  a  matter  of  so  general  inter- 
est, and  pursue  such  a  course  as  that  always  safe  and 
wholesome  adviser  would  suggest.  And  what  does 
common  sense  direct  us  to  do  ?  Why,  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  this ;  that  since  spirits  are  an  article  of 


48  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

universal  use,  and  are  likely  always  to  be  such  an  ar- 
ticle, their  sale  may  be  restricted  within  proper  limits, 
but  not  entirely  prohibited..  This  last  is  more  than 
the  sense  of  the  community  is  willing  to  endure.  No* 
body  wants  to  be  made  a  teetotaller  by  violence,  any 
more  than  he  is  ready  to  subscribe  to  any  particular 
creed  in  consequence  of  compulsion. 

Regulate  and  restrict,  but  do  not  try  to  prohibit. 
You  may  safely  hope  to  do  the  first,  because  the  moral 
sense  of  the  community  will  sustain  you  in  it ;  but  as 
for  the  other,  it  is  like  kicking  against  the  pricks, 
It  is  too  sweeping  an  operation  for  human  nature  tc 
submit  to. 

Then  there  should  be  a  thorough  and  efficient  license 
system.  That  we  subscribe  to  with  all  our  heart,  be- 
cause it  is,  first,  practicable,  and,  secondly,  right ;  and 
better  reasons  cannot  be  had  for  the  asking.  Construct 
a  license  law  that  will,  in  the  first  place,  so  fairly  and 
fully  embody  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  people,  and, 
in  the  next  place,  so  perfectly  harmonize  with  the  co- 
related  rights  of  individuals  and  the  community  at 
large,  that  its  execution  becomes  perfectly  possible  and 
practicable.  Let  it  be  what  the  public,  in  the  first 
place,  demands  ;  what  will  truly  express  its  sense  of 
justice,  its  progressive  tendencies,  its  reformatory  incli- 
nations. Then  see  to  it  that  such  a  law  is  duly  exe- 
cuted, as  it  very  easily  can  be.  Clothe  only  respectable 
and  responsible  men  in  the  community  with  the  privi- 
leges which  the  license  confers.  Subject  them  to  se- 
vere penalties  for  breach  of  any  one  of  the  conditions 


THE   LICENSE   SYSTEM.  49 

on  which  their  license  is  held  by  them.  Require  them 
to  give  ample,  and  more  than  ample,  bonds  for  the  safe 
and  proper  use  of  the  privilege  thus  intrusted  to  them. 
Mulct  them  in  heavy,  and  even  exemplary  damages,  if 
they  should  happen  to  so  far  forget  their  responsibility 
as  to  sell  to  improper  persons,  or  in  improper  quanti- 
ties, or  under  improper  circumstances.  Require  them, 
also,  to  keep  for  sale  none  but  the  piirest  and  best  of 
liquors,  and  to  sell  those  of  any  other  description  at 
their  peril.  And  then,  give  the  system  the  convenient 
form  of  a  general  law,  or  enactment,  like  the  free  bank- 
ing laws  of  some  of  the  States,  so  that  they  who  are 
willing  to  comply  with  the  specific  conditions  of  the 
same,  are  not  denied  the  corresponding  privileges.  Let 
any  town  of  a  State  license  any  number  of  its  citizens 
or  not,  as  it  sees  fit  for  itself;  it  may  thus  be  a  matter 
for  the  people  themselves  directly  to  settle,  as  it  mani- 
festly should  be. 

This  plan,  so  simple  and  direct,  while  it  does  not  in 
any  way  invade  or  even  impair  the  rights  of  individuals 
to  such  property  as  the  laws  every  where  recognize, 
and  tax,  and  protect,  —  or  did  protect  until  recently,  — 
likewise  has  tender  regard  for  the  spirit  of  reform  that 
pervades  the  body  of  the  people,  and  goes  forward  with 
that  noble  spirit  just  as  fast  as  it  can  go.  It  does  violence 
to  no  right  or  healthy  and  well-grounded  interest  of 
the  individual ;  and  yet  it  does  assist,  and  in  the  most 
effectual  manner,  too,  in  carrying  forward  those  proper 
reforms  that  serve  to  mark  the  steady  advance  of  the 
race.  By  its  very  moderation  it  makes  friends  and 
5 


50  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

inspires  general  confidence.  It  is  so  firm,  while  it  is  so 
just ;  it  is  so  thorough,  while  it  is  also  so  considerate. 
Experience  abundantly  shows  that  nothing  more  than 
this  need  be  attempted  in  this  generation,  if  those  who 
project  it  desire  rather  the  sure  and  steady  exaltation 
of  the  people,  than  the  building  up  of  a  reckless  partisan 
power  for  ends  purely  selfish,  and  full  of  mischief  to 
the  community. 


IN  MODERATION,  51 


VII. 

IN    MODERATION. 

THERE  are  more  drunkards  to-day,  with  all  the  anti- 
license,  Maine  Law,  prohibitory  feeling,  than  there  were 
before  stringent  legislative  enactments  were  mistakenly 
supposed  to  be  the  cure-all  for  drunkenness.  As  Gov- 
ernor Seymour,  of  New  York,  expressed  it,  when  the 
Maine  Law  came  into  operation,  rum  became  of  neces- 
sity a  "  pocket  institution."  Every  body  had  it  about 
them  ;  if  not  in  their  pockets  literally,  then  in  their 
houses,  or  their  offices,  or  in  sly  and  out-of-the-way 
places.  We  know  of  many  and  many  a  man  who 
thought  it  necessary  to  lay  in  •  a  stock  before  the  law 
went  into  operation,  and  who  became  a  confirmed 
drunkard  not  a  very  long  while  afterwards,  filling  a 
drunkard's  grave. 

They  laid  in  a  liberal  store,  for  the  fear  that  they 
were  to  have  no  opportunities  of  getting  more ;  and 
not  being  accustomed  to  the  use  of  it,  self-restraint  was 
very  soon  broken  over,  and  they  went  down.  It  was 
one  of  the  most  natural  results  of  the  operation  of 
such  a  law.  To  be  sure,  its  friends  and  advocates 
plead  for  a  fair  trial  of  it,  saying  that  these  early  ex- 
cesses and  misfortunes  were  to  be  expected  ;  but  if  any 
law  whatever  is  to  put  in  jeopardy  the  health  or  hap- 


52  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

piness  of  even  a  single  human  being,  merely  for  the 
sake  of  testing  itself  as  an  experiment,  it  is  not  enti- 
tled to  a  moment's  consideration.  It  is  to  be  con- 
demned and  denounced  on  that  one  ground  alone ; 
and  that  is  ground  enough. 

Spirits  may  be  used  in  moderation,  and  with  perfect 
safety ;  and  it  is  nonsense  to  harp  on  the  old  string, 
that  to  taste,  ever  so  prudently,  is  certain  ruin.  It 
never  was  so,  and  it  never  will  be  so.  Such  deplora- 
ble consequences  come  not  of  the  use  of  good  liquors 
and  a  healthy  public  sentiment  respecting  their  use  ; 
but  only  from  the  destroying  adulterations  that  are 
sold  for  good  liquors,  and  from  that  wrong-headed 
public  opinion  that  drives  a  man  to  the  practice  of 
hypocrisy  in  order  to  do  what  it  is  perfectly  proper  for 
him  to  do,  and  persecutes  him  with  all  imaginable  bit- 
terness and  virulence  if  he  dares  defy  the  tyranny  of 
such  a  shallow  pretension.  It  is  not  the  fault  of  the 
spirits  at  all,  but  of  the  poisoned  stuff  called  spirits, 
and  the  insanity  of  public  prejudice  that  refuses  to 
look  at  things  as  they  should  be. 

It  appears,  if  we  are  at  the  pains  to  consider  it  care- 
fully, that  most  of  the  first  minds  and  noblest  spirits 
of  the  country  are  in  the  habit  of  using  spirits  and 
wines  moderately ;  but  such  has  latterly  been  the 
rabies  of  the  community  on  the  subject,  lashed  up  as 
the  public  mind  has  been  by  aspiring  leaders  and  fren- 
zied monomaniacs,  that  they  have  been  compelled,  in 
pure  self-defence,  to  keep  their  own  secret,  and  liter- 
ally drink  behind  the  door  !  They  are  good  enough 


IN   MODERATION.  53 

men  till  it  is  known  they  "  drink,"  and  then,  nothing 
is  bad  enough  to  say  about  them. 

Let  us  give  examples,  here  and  there. 

The  "  New  York  Tribune  "  is  a  strong  arguer  for 
prohibition,  and  always  has  been  ;  yet  it  is  well  known, 
to  those  at  least  who  know  any  thing  about  it,  that  the 
majority  of  its  writers  make  an  habitual  use  of  stimu- 
lants. We  charge  it  not  against  them  at  all,  for  we 
consider  it  entirely  their  own  business,  not  ours  ;  but 
we  state  it  simply  as  a  fact,  from  which  those  who  fall 
down  at  the  feet  of  the  advocates  of  prohibition  may 
be  able  to  make  some  inferences  of  their  own. 

Dr.  Holmes,  the  immortal  "  Autocrat  of  the  Break- 
fast Table,"  says  in  an  article  in  the  February  number 
of  the  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  while  discoursing  most 
genially  and  most  philosophically,  too,  on  the  subject 
of  wine,  as  follows  :  — 

"  Whatever  may  be  the  hygienic  advantages  or  dis- 
advantages of  wine  —  and  I,  for  one,  except  for  certain 
particular  ends,  believe  in  water,  and,  I  blush  to  say 
it,  in  black  tea  —  there  is  no  doubt  about  its  being  the 
grand  specific  against  dull  dinners.  A  score  of  people 
come  together  in  all  moods  of  mind  and  body.  The 
problem  is,  in  the  space  of  one  hour,  more  or  less,  to 
bring  them  all  into  the  same  condition  of  slightly  ex- 
alted life.  Food  alone  is  enough  for  one  person,  per- 
haps —  talk,  alone,  for  another  ;  but  the  grand  equal- 
izer and  fraternizer,  which  works  up  the  radiators  to 
their  maximum  radiation,  and  the  absorbents  to  their 
maximum  receptivity,  is  now  just  where  it  was  when 
5* 


54  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

'  The  conscious  water  saw  its  Lord  and  blushed,* 

—  when  six  great  vessels  containing  water,  which 
seems  to  have  been  carefully  purified,  so  as  to  be  ready 
for  the  marriage  feast,  were  changed  into  the  best  of 
wine.  I  once  wrote  a  song  about  wine,  in  which  I 
spoke  so  warmly  of  it,  that  I  was  afraid  some  would 
think  it  was  written  inter  pocula ;  whereas  it  was  com- 
posed in  the  bosom  of  my  family,  under  the  most  tran- 
quillizing domestic  influences. 

"  The  divinity  student  turned  towards  me,  looking 
mischievous.  '  Can  you  tell  me,'  he  said,  6  who  wrote 
a  song  for  a  temperance  celebration  once,  of  which  the 
following  is  a  verse  ?  — 

« Alas  for  the  loved  one,  too  gentle  and  fair 
The  joys  of  the  banquet  to  chasten  and  share  ! 
Her  eye  lost  its  light  that  his  goblet  might  shine, 
And  the  rose  of  her  cheek  was  dissolved  in  his  wine ! '  " 

"  4 1  did,'  I  answered.  <  What  are  you  going  to  do 
about  it  ?  I  will  tell  you  another  line  I  wrote  long 
ago  — 

«  Don't  be  "  consistent"  —  but  be  simply  true.9  " 

The  "  Autocrat "  is  perfectly  right.  He  is  a  man 
who  has  a  deep  insight  into  the  mysteries  of  human 
nature,  too.  Our  half-fledged  legislators,  who  under- 
stand no  more  of  the  workings  of  the  human  heart 
than  they  do  of  comets'  tails,  think  man  is  like  a  mul- 
tiplication table,  square  all  round,  and  readily  ciphered 
out  by  any  patent  process  ;  they  only  display  their 
own  mixed  ignorance  and  presumption,  —  and  these 


IN   MODERATION.  55 

two  things  are  almost  always  found  to  go  together, — 
when  they  try  their  ill-considered  experiments  upon 
the  community.  The  community  are  a  very  patient 
body,  however,  and  are  perfectly  willing  to  give  the 
fledgling  legislators  a  chance ;  by-and-by,  however, 
they  will  take  these  things  into  their  own  hands,  as 
they  manifestly  should  have  done  long  ago. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Holland,  one  of  the  editors  of  the  "  Spring- 
field Republican,"  and  the  author  of  "  Timothy  Tit- 
comb's  Letters,"  "The  Bay  Path,"  and  a  writer  of 
most  genial  and  engaging  qualities,  in  a  lecture  recent- 
ly spoken  before  the  Lyceums  of  our  principal  cities, 
alludes  in  this  way  to  the  natural  effect  of  wine  as  an 
opener  of  men's  hearts,  —  a  potent  mollifier  of  their 
prejudices,  —  a  cement  of  friendships,  —  and  a  prolific 
producer  of  beautiful  thoughts  :  — 

"  Go  to  a  dinner  party.  You  find  every  one  con- 
strained, and  evidently  feeling  awkward.  The  crack 
of  the  wine-bottle  is  heard,  and  when  the  Heidsick  has 
completed  the  grand  tour,  every  tongue  is  loosed.  A 
social  atmosphere  has  been  created  by  artificial  means. 
The  northern  and  north-eastern  portions  of  our  coun- 
try have  lost  much  of  their  sociability,  and,  I  regret  to 
say,  said  Dr.  Holland,  that  I  think  it  is  because  liquors 
have  been  banished  from  the  sideboard  and  the  tavern. 
But  I  do  not  speak  of  these  changes  to  advocate  rum 
drinking  —  by  no  means." 

We  will  append  in  this  place  the  song  of  Dr. 
Holmes,  —  the  same  with  whose  authorship  the  "  divin- 
ity student "  taunted  him,  as  described  above  by  him- 


56  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

self.    It  is  entitled  "  A  Song  of  Other  Times,"  and  is 
as  follows :  — 

"  As  o'er  the  glacier's  frozen  sheet 

Breathes  soft  the  Alpine  rose, 
So  through  life's  desert,  springing  sweet, 

The  flower  of  friendship  grows  ; 
And  as,  where'er  the  roses  grow, 

Some  rain  or  dew  descends, 
Tis  Nature's  law  that  wine  should  flow 

To  wet  the  lips  of  friends. 

Then  once  again,  before  we  part, 

My  empty  glass  shall  ring  ; 
And  he  that  has  the  warmest  heart 

Shall  loudest  laugh  and  sing. 

"  They  say  we  were  not  born  to  eat ; 

But  gray-haired  sages  think 
It  means —  Be  moderate  in  your  meat, 

And  partly  live  to  drink ; 
For  baser  tribes  the  rivers  flow, 

That  know  not  wine  or  song  ; 
Man  wants  but  little  drink  below, 

But  wants  that  little  strong. 

"If  one  bright  drop  is  like  the  gem 

That  decks  a  monarch's  crown, 
One  goblet  holds  a  diadem 

Of  rubies  melted  down  ! 
A  fig  for  Caesar's  blazing  brow, 

But,  like  the  Egyptian  queen, 
Bid  each  dissolving  jewel  glow 

My  thirsty  lips  between. 

"  The  Grecian's  mound,  the  Roman's  urn, 

Are  silent  when  we  call, 
Yet  still  the  purple  grapes  return 
To  cluster  on  the  wall ; 


IN   MODERATION.  57 

It  was  a  bright  immortal's  head 

They  circled  with  the  vine, 
And  o'er  their  best  and  bravest  dead 

They  poured  the  dark-red  wine. 

"  Methinks  o'er  every  sparkling  glass 

Young  Eros  waves  his  wings, 
And  echoes  o'er  its  dimples  pass 

From  dead  Ana cr eon's  strings  ; 
And,  tossing  round  its  beaded  brim 

Their  locks  of  floating  gold, 
With  bacchant  dance  and  choral  hymn 

Return  the  nymphs  of  old. 

"  A  welcome,  then,  to  joy  and  mirth, 

From  hearts  as  fresh  as  ours, 
To  scatter  o'er  the  dust  of  earth 

Their  sweetly-mingled  flowers ; 
'Tis  Wisdom's  self  the  cup  that  fills, 

In  spite  of  Folly's  frown, 
And  Nature  from  her  vine- clad  hills 

That  rains  her  life-blood  down  ! 

Then  once  again,  before  we  part, 

My  empty  glass  shall  ring  ; 
And  he  that  has  the  warmest  heart 

Shall  loudest  laugh  and  sing." 

A  single  passage  in  the  above  beautiful  song  of  Dr. 
Holmes  will  naturally  excite  in  the  reader's  mind  the 
reflection  that  he  has  unconsciously  fallen  into  the 
same  strain  of  thought  with  another  poet,  —  no  less 
an  one  than  the  noble  King  David.  That  passage  is 
this :  — 

"  For  baser  tribes  the  rivers  flow, 
That  know  not  wine  or  song,"  &c. 


58  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

David,  who  was  a  poet  as  well  as  Dr.  Holmes,  sang 
in  the  104th  Psalm,  from  the  10th  to  the  15th  verse, 
in  the  following  fine  strain  :  — 

"  He  sendeth  the  springs  into  the  valleys,  which  run 
among  the  hills. 

"  They  give  drink  to  every  beast  of  the  field  ;  the 
wild  asses  quench  their  thirst. 

"  By  them  shall  the  fowls  of  the  heaven  have  their 
habitation,  which  sing  among  the  branches. 

"  He  watereth  the  hills  from  his  chambers  ;  the  earth 
is  satisfied  with  the  fruit  of  thy  works. 

"  He  cause th  the  grass  to  grow  for  the  cattle,  and 
herb  for  the  service  of  man  ;  that  he  may  bring  forth 
food  out  of  the  earth  ; 

"  And  wine,  that  maketh  glad  the  heart  of  man,  and 
oil,  to  make  his  face  to  shine,  and  bread,  which  strength- 
eneth  man's  heart." 

According  to  King  David,  therefore,  water  was  made 
chiefly  for  "  wild  asses,"  but  wine  was  made  to  "  make 
glad  the  heart  of  man"  We  seriously  ask  bigoted 
water-drinkers  to  consider  into  what  company  their 
habits  are  likely  to  take  them. 

And  in  this  place  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to 
allude  to  a  fling  that  has  frequently  been  indulged  in 
by  abstinence  stump  speakers  against  those  who  choose 
to  use  wine  and  spirits,  and  say  nothing  about  it. 
The  argument  is,  that  no  animal  will  drink,  or  can  be 
made  to  drink,  any  kind  of  liquor  ;  from  this  they 
take  the  liberty  to  charge  that  those  who  do  use  liquor 
of  any  kind  are  worse  than  brutes.  Now,  their  logic 


IN  MODERATION.  59 

takes  them,  properly,  to  a  very  different  conclusion, 
which  is  this  :  if  it  proves  any  thing,  it  only  proves  that 
those  who  do  not  drink  are  like  animals ;  while  those 
who  do,  are  essentially  a  different  and  distinct  order 
of  beings !  Is  not  this  even  so  ? 


60  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 


VIII. 

TOO  MUCH. 

WE  make  a  few  extracts  from  one  of  the  Boston  daily 
papers,  expressing  every  reflecting  man's  sentiments 
on  the  subject  of  drunkenness.  This  sin  cannot  be  re- 
buked in  too  strong  language,  nor  held  up  in  too  vivid 
coloring  to  warn  the  young  against  its  approaching 
dangers.  We  only  take  exception  to  the  position  as- 
sumed by  those  who  think  they  have  discovered  a  patent 
process  of  their  own  by  which  drunkenness  is  to  be 
cured  and  extirpated  from  the  land,  and  tell  them  they 
never  can  succeed  in  their  plan  by  the  way  they  have 
set  about  it. 

The  newspaper  quotations  are  as  follows  :  — 
"  When  man  revolted  against  his  Maker,  his  passions 
rebelled  against  himself,  and  became  the  worst  enemy 
of  the  soul.  If  there  be  any  fertile  source  of  mischief  to 
human  life,  it  is,  beyond  doubt,  the  misrule  of  passion. 
It  is  drunken  passion  which  poisons  the  peace  and  hap- 
piness of  the  family  circle,  overturns  the  order  of 
society,  and  strews  the  path  of  life  with  so  many  mis- 
eries as  to  render  it  indeed  the  vale  of  tears.  It  has 
pointed  the  assassin's  dagger  and  overspread  the  earth 
with  bloodshed.  The  black  and  fierce  passions,  such 
as  envy,  jealousy,  and  revenge,  take  their  worst  influ- 


TOO   MUCH.  61 

ences  from  the  poisoned  bowl.  The  inordinate  use  of 
this  soul-destroying  beverage  has  opened  the  flood- 
gates of  every  species  of  vice  and  immorality,  and  has 
wasted  the  produce  of  honest  industry  a  thousand  fold 
more  than  all  other  vices  combined.  Nothing  chaste 
or  holy  has  ever  been  connected  with  the  unrestrained 
use  of  intoxicating  liquors.  It  makes  a  maiden  lay  by 
her  veil  and  robe,  which  modesty  and  becoming  shame 
made  her  keep  close  about  her,  and  in  an  evil  and  un- 
guarded hour  her  virtue  and  chastity  are  gone  forever. 
Under  the  influence  of  intoxicating  liquor  many  excel- 
lent personages  have  suffered  great  calamities.  In- 
stances of  this  are  frequent  in  the  Bible,  and  in  profane 

history. 

***** 

"  Drunkenness  is  ind,eed  the  agency  of  hell,  as 
through  its  influence  the  arch  fiend,  the  declared  en- 
emy of  God  and  man,  is  to  a  greater  extent  more  suc- 
cessful in  frustrating  the  plan  of  universal  redemption, 
by  bringing  about  the-  destruction  of  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  souls. 

***** 

"  Sobriety  is  the  bridle  of  the  passion  of  desire,  and 
temperance  is  the  bit  and  curb  of  that  bridle.  Glut- 
tony is  the  twin  relative  of  drunkenness,  and  produces 
the  pain  of  watching  and  choler.  Gluttony  is  more 
uncharitable  to  the  body,  and  drunkenness  to  the  soul, 
or  the  understanding  part  of  man.  c  Take  heed  to 
yourselves  lest  at  any  time  your  hearts  be  overcharged 
with  surfeiting  and  drunkenness.'  Surfeiting,  that  is 
6 


62  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

the  evil  effects,  the  sottislmess  and  remaining  stupidity 
of  habitual  or  last  night's  drunkenness.  '  While  men 
think  themselves  wise  they  become  fools.'  They  think 
they  shall  taste  the  aconite,  and  not  die  ;  or  crown 
their  heads  with  the  juice  of  poppy  and  not  be  drowsy  ; 
and  if  they  drink  off  the  whole  vintage,'  still  think  they 
can  swallow  another  goblet. 

"  In  all  ages  of  the  world  drunkenness  has  been  de- 
tested by  every  class  of  people  under  heaven.  All 
nations,  however  sunk  in  barbarism,  have  ever  been 
unanimous  in  striving  to  foot  out  from  among  them  this 
detestable  vice.  The  faith  of  the  Mahometans  forbids 
them  to  drink  wine,  and  they  abstain  religiously  as  the 
sons  of  Rechab.  The  rulers  of  the  Athenians  were  ac- 
customed to  place  a  drunken  person  in  the  midst  of 
their  young  men,  that,  by  his  disgraceful  conduct  and 
foolish  behavior,  they  might  forever  after  loathe  and 
detest  such  a  shameless  sin.  And  the  faith  of  Christ 
forbids  drunkenness  to  us,  and  therefore  is  infinitely 
more  powerful  to  suppress  this  vice,  when  we  consider 
that  iv e  are  Christians ,  and  that  drunkards  can  never 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God. 

"  The  evil  consequences  of  drunkenness  are  in  this 
sense  reckoned  by  writers  of  Holy  Scripture  and  other 
wise  personages  of  the  world.  It  causeth  woes  and 
mischief,  wounds,  sorrow,  sin,  and  shame  ;  it  maketh 
bitterness  of  spirit,  brawling,  and  quarrelling ;  it  in- 
creaseth  rage  and  lesseneth  strength  ;  it  particularly  ad-  • 
ministereth  to  lust,  and  yet  disablcth  the  body ;  it  maketh 
red  eyes,  a  red  face,  and  a  loose  and  babbling  tongue ; 


TOO   MUCH.  63 

and  Solomon,  in  enumerating  the  evils  of  this  vice, 
adds  this  to  the  account:  'Thine  eyes  shall  behold 
strange  women,  and  thy  heart  shall  utter  perverse 
things.'  It  besots  and  hinders  the  actions  of  the  un- 
derstanding, maketh  a  man  brutish  in  his  passions  and 
a  fool  in  his  reason,  and  differs  nothing  from  madness 
but  that  it  is  voluntary,  and  so  is  an  equal  evil  in  na- 
ture, and  worse  in  manners.  It  extinguisheth  and 
quenches  the  Spirit  of  God,  for  no  man  can  be  filled 
witli  the  Spirit  of  God  and  with  wine  at  the  same  time, 
and  therefore  St.  Paul  makes  them  exclusive  of  each 
other.  6  Be  not  drunk  with  wine,  wherein  is  excess,  but 
be  filled  with  the  Spirit.'  It  opens  all  the  sanctuaries 
of  nature,  and  discovers  the  nakedness  of  the  soul,  all 
its  weaknesses  and  follies  ;  it  multiplies  sins  and  dis- 
covers them,  makes  a  man  incapable  of  being  a  private 
friend  or  a  public  counsellor,  and  disqualifies  him  from 
any  situation  of  trust  or  responsibility.  It  taketh  a 
man's  soul  into  slavery  and  imprisonment  more  than 
any  other  vice  whatsoever,  because  it  disarms  a  man 
of  all  his  reason  and  his  wisdom,  whereby  he  might 
be  cured,  and  therefore  it  commonly  grows  upon  him 
with  age  ;  a  drunkard  being  still  more  a  fool  and 
less  a  man.  I  need  not  add  any  more  sad  examples, 
since  all  history  of  all  ages  has  but  too  many  of 
them." 

The  writer  speaks  earnestly  and  with  perfect  truth. 
It  is  impossible  to  paint  the  vice  of  drunkenness  in  too 
frightful  colors.  It  is  a  terrible  infliction  indeed,  and 
comes  of  lack  of  self-restraint,  of  partaking  too  statedly, 


64  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

and  of  too  much.  No  man  should  surrender  his  self- 
control.  But  because  men  do,  and  perhaps  in  this 
matter  in  great  numbers,  does  it  therefore  follow  that 
the  fault  is  in  the  liquor  rather  than  in  themselves  ? 
Is  this  pretended  reform  movement  to  be  conducted  on 
the  principle  that  a  man  is  a  nothing,  capable  of  no 
self-control,  and  with  no  character,  no  manhood,  when 
temptation  is  by  ?  and  hence,  that  in  order  to  reform 
and  renovate  the  man,  the  temptation  is  to  be  removed, 
rather  than  the  man  taught  to  set  himself  above  the 
temptation  ?  What  sort  of  a  reform  is  that  in  which 
the  individual  undergoes  no  change,  —  only  the  temp- 
tations are  taken  away  from  him,  and  he  is  free  from 
vice  because  he  cannot  put  vicious  instruments  under 
contribution  ?  Is  this  life  ?  Is  it  not  rather  making 
live  men  over  into  dead  men  ?  paralyzing  the  force  of 
their  will,  —  weakening  their  powers  of  resistance,— 
and  taking  away  from  them  every  motive  for  a  more 
perfect  self-control  ?  So  it  looks  to  us,  certainly ;  and 
so  we  are  willing  to  prophesy  the  public  will  come  in 
time  to  confess  it,  however  tightly  that  public  may  be 
bound  up  in  the  iron  bands  of  prejudice  and  vicious 
self-will,  just  at  this  present  time. 

We  desire  the  reader  to  mark  our  prediction. 

Better  refuse  utterly  to  taste  spirits  of  any  sort,  than 
drink  immoderately.  Every  man  can  tell  what  his 
own  temperament  is  for  himself.  Nobody  else  has  a 
license  to  set  up  authority  over  him.  In  fact,  the  mo- 
ment you  abridge  a  man's  freedom,  even  to  pursue  evil 
if  he  likes,  and  abridge  it  by  throwing  around  him 


TOO   MUCH.  65 

restraints  of  this  sort  and  that,  or  by  taking  every  thing 
that  bears  the  name  of  temptation  out  of  his  way,  — 
that  moment  you  make  a  moral  cripple  of  him,  and  in 
no  sense  a  better  and  a  stronger  man.  The  Almighty 
himself  has,  as  we  have  shown  from  the  Scripture 
record,  left  the  choice  entirely  open  to  all  alike,  and 
out  of  the  conflict  alone  can  finally  proceed  the  victory. 
He  pretends  to  make  no  man  virtuous  by  compulsion, 
or  yet  by  placing  him  beyond  the  reach  of  vice ;  for 
that  would  imply  the  possession  of  such  negative  virtue 
as,  we  fear,  would  give  an  individual  but  a  very  nar- 
row claim  to  positive  goodness. 

We  might,  at  least,  take  a  hint  from  the  arrange- 
ments of  Providence,  and  the  harmonious  laws  of 
Nature,  in  the  shaping  and  coloring  of  our  own  laws ; 
neither  being  at  the  pains,  on  the  one  hand,  to  force 
such  a  state  of  purity  upon  the  world  as  would  compel 
men  to  be  virtuous  because  they  are  not  allowed  to 
know  what  vice  means,  —  nor,  on  the  other,  to  invade 
in  any  way  those  rights  of  property  and  person  which, 
from  time  immemorial,  have  been  esteemed  sacred  be- 
yond disturbance. 

But,  as  we  said  before,  the  sin  of  drunkenness  is  one 
so  great  and  terrible  as  to  call  forth  naturally  the  most 
profound  sympathies  of  mankind  for  those  who  are  the 
sad  sufferers  by  it,  and  excite  men  to  put  forth  concen- 
trated exertions,  exertions  made  almost  with  a  "  bloody 
sweat,"  for  its  effectual  removal.  Scarcely  any  of  us 
all,  but,  if  he  or  she  were  to  make  the  confession  aloud, 
would  certify  to  the  melancholy  truth  that  gome  friend, 
6* 


66  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

or  possibly  some  dear  and  near  relative,  has  fallen  power- 
less beneath  the  assaults  of  the  fiend.  There  is  enough, 
and  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  times  enough,  to 
appeal  to  the  profoundest  sympathies  that  lie  unused 
in  the  human  heart ;  and  are  we  so  very  certain,  then, 
while  the  exercise  and  daily  use  of  these  sympathies, 
these  protestations,  these  pleadings,  these  warnings, 
and  this  final  punishment  of  public  scorn  and  contempt, 
would  be  so  potent  if  properly  called  out  into  open 
action,  that  it  is  better,  and  more  effective,  and  pro- 
ductive of  a  more  stable  reform,  to  call  in  the  force  of 
law,  and  the  authority  and  violence  of  statutes  conceived 
in  the  heat  of  partisan  passion,  and  so  supersede  the 
employment  of  the  diviner  qualities,  —  the  sympathies 
and  the  pleadings,  the  higher  culture  and  the  tender 
love,  —  altogether?  In  truth,  can  drunkenness  be 
cured,  effectually  cured,  by  society  in  any  such  super- 
ficial way  ? 


THE   UNCONSTITUTIONALITY   OF   PROHIBITION.  67 


IX. 

THE  UNCONSTITUTIONALITY  OF  PROHIBITION. 

IT  has  been  generally  supposed  that  a  free  govern- 
ment expressed  freedom  from  all  sorts  of  tyranny  — 
not  less  from  tyrannical  men  than  tyrannical  laws; 
that  such  laws  as  characterized  free  States  must  of  ne- 
cessity be  pervaded  with  the  spirit  of  the  largest  liberty ; 
that  all  forms  of  legislation,  in  fact,  in  free  States,  were 
capable  of  containing  the  widest  liberty,  without  degen- 
erating into  wild  license.  There  are  other  betrayals 
of  tyranny  than  those  which  are  made  by  the  "  one 
man  power,"  sitting  on  a  throne  and  holding  a  sceptre. 
A  legal  enactment,  framed  and  indorsed  by  a  profess- 
edly free  people,  may  contain  the  real  essence  of  tyran- 
ny as  much  as  any  edict  of  an  autocrat  or  an  emperor. 
The  test  is  to  be  found  in  the  spirit  of  the  enactment, 
rather  than  in  either  its  origin  or  form. 

The  so-styled  "Maine  Law,"  which  looks  at  nothing 
short  of  downright,  violent,  and  defiant  prohibition  both 
of  the  sale  and  use  of  liquors,  is,  in  our  judgment,  the 
very  representative  of  the  spirit  of  tyranny.  It  was 
conceived  in  ideas  of  authority,  and  power,  and  force, 
and  by  force,  and  power,  and  authority  alone  it  must 
hope  to  be  executed.  One  would  suppose  any  such  law 
ought  at  least  to  secure  the  respect  of  the  whole  com- 


68  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

munity,  however  much  it  might  militate  with  the  weak- 
ness and  delinquencies  of  a  portion  ;  but  it  has  proved 
that  it  fails  even  of  that.  No  law  was  ever  written  on 
the  pages  of  the  statute  books,  that  called  out  such  a 
furious  excitement  of  opposition,  —  that  generated  such 
animosity  and  bad  blood.  It  has  made,  we  presume  to 
say,  more  outright  rebels  against  all  forms  of  law,  than 
it  has  ever  done  good  ;  and  this  statement  of  course 
fails  to  include  the  cases  of  deceit  and  hypocrisy,  the 
acts  of  spying,  and  lying,  and  eaves-dropping,  that  have 
shown  themselves  to  be  its  legitimate  fruit  and  result. 

A  prohibitory  statute,  like  this,  is  directly  in  the  face 
of  all  sound  and  true  constitutional  principles ;  we 
mean  the  organic  principles  of  that  constitution  upon 
which  rests  the  fabric  of  our  entire  political  and  social 
system.  For  if  a  despotism  like  this  is  to  be  the  con- 
fessed groundwork  of  the  State,  then  it  must  needs 
follow  that  the  State  itself  must  partake  of  a  similar 
character.  You  cannot  lay  your  foundations  in  a  spirit 
and  temper  of  tyranny,  which  ceases  to  regard  the 
rights  of  others  with  tenderness  and  care,  and  expect 
the  superstructure  to  offer  a  free*,  and  broad,  and  lib- 
eral pattern. 

And  if  the  underlying  spirit  and  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  this  government  of  ours,  and  of  the  government 
of  each  one  of  the  States,  is  essentially  that  of  freedom, 
—  a  freedom  which  allows  to  every  individual  citizen 
the  largest  latitude  for  accumulating  his  own  fortune, 
and  progressing  step  by  step  to  his  own  widest  develop- 
ment,—  is  it  not,  we  seriously  inquire,  in  direct  antag- 


THE   UNCONSTITUTIONALLY   OF   PROHIBITION.  69 

onism  to  that  spirit  to  place  laws  on  the  statute  books 
that  excite  the  strongest  repulsion  on  the  part  of  citi- 
zens of  every  walk  and  class,  and  force  them,  both 
openly  and  by  resort,  to  shifting  expedients  to  set  such 
laws  at  defiance  ?  It  most  assuredly  is ;  and  so  all 
thoughtful  and  reflecting  legislators  will  in  time  come 
to  acknowledge. 

If  the  spirit  of  our  Constitution  is  in  any  real  sense 
a  free  spirit,  then  such  tyrannical  enactments  are  con- 
fessedly ^^-constitutional ;  and  this  is  the  sum  total  of 
the  argument.  Under  our  Constitutions,  it  is  claimed 
that  a  man  is  perfectly  free  to  enjoy  himself  in  his  own 
way ;  to  eat,  drink,  and  wear  exactly  what  he  chooses, 
just  so  long  as  he  interferes  with  none  of  the  rights  and 
jttivileges  of  any  one  else.  Now,  how  a  man,  consist- 
ently with  a  doctrine,  or  principle,  like  this,  is  to  be 
told  that  he  shall  not  buy  arid  drink  wine  or  spirits  at 
all,  so  long  as  he  infringes  by  the  act  in  no  way  upon 
the  rights  of  the  mass,  or  of  even  a  single  one  of 
the  mass,  passes  our  comprehension.  And  again,  and 
more  particularly,  how  the  curtailment  by  law  of  an 
indvidual's  power  over  his  own  appetites,  —  and  only  a 
curtailment  in  the  public  eye  at  that,  —  is  going  to 
effect  the  man's  moral  reform,  or  secure  any  greater 
rapidity  of  progress  in  morals  for  him,  we  confess  we 
are  not  at  all  able  to  see.  There  are  those,  of  course, 
who  can  see  a  great  way  farther  into  a  millstone  than 
we  can ;  and  we  would  be  glad  if  such  strangely-gifted 
individuals  would  give  the  world  the  benefit  of  their 
superior  vision. 


70  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

We  set  ourselves  about  the  quotation  of  no  phrases, 
such  as  are  to  be  picked  out  of  the  several  State  Con- 
stitutions, all,  however,  only  showing  the  inconsistency 
between  the  open  guarantees  of  individual  rights  set 
forth  in  those  instruments,  and  the  open  defiance  offered 
them  by  these  prohibitory  enactments ;  that  were  an 
altogether  needless  task.  But  we  plant  ourselves  upon 
the  position  that  such  laws  are  in  open  violation  of  the 
vitalizing  spirit,  the  fundamental  principle,  of  these 
Constitutions  ;  and  that  we  have  shown  them  to  be. 
Instead  of  securing  to  the  individual  citizen  the  "largest 
liberty,"  —  of  course  compatible  with  the  largest  lib- 
erty of  others,  —  these  statutes  deprive  him  of  his  liberty 
altogether.  In  the  case  in  hand,  the  individual  is  not 
permitted  to  purchase  liquor,  lest  he  may  abuse  the 
privilege;  and  this  is  what  they  style,  and  delude 
themselves  into  believing,  the  freedom  of  all !  A  man's 
faculties  are  at  first  clapped  into  jail,  and  then  he  is 
told  that  none  are  so  free  as  himself!  If  it  were  not 
such  a  palpable,  unmistakable,  unendurable  tyranny, 
in  itself,  it  would  be  the  veriest  satire  on  what  is  com- 
monly called  Free  Government  the  world  ever  beheld. 
To  make  men  free  from  their  appetites,  it  would  make 
them  slaves  to  Law  ;  and  if  slaves  to  Law,  then  how  in 
any  real  sense  Free  ? 

Haste  in  legislation,  especially  in  mere  legislative 
theories,  is  always  detrimental  in  the  highest  degree  to 
the  efficiency  of  the  laws  enacted.  And  it  is  particu- 
larly true,  that  it  is  not  safe  for  legislators  to  go  faster 
than  the  state  of  public  sentiment  will  warrant.  For 


THE   UNCONSTITUTIONALLY   OF   PROHIBITION.  71 

unless  a  statute  has  the  ready  support  of  popular  opin- 
ion, it  must  become  either  a  tyranny,  if  sought  to  be 
put  into  execution,  or  a  perfectly  dead  letter.  But 
when  the  people  are  assured  that  a  law,  like  the  Maine 
Law,  is  in  all  its  essential  features  an  unconstitutional 
affair,  and  got  up  by  a  pressure  of  exciting  circum- 
stances, operating  upon  the  minds  of  well-meaning  but 
really  unreflecting  men,  they  will,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
be  very  loth  to  pay  it  either  obedience  or  respect. 
They  must  needs  feel  convinced  that  a  law  —  any  law 
—  has  its  foundations  in  the  principles  of  justice,  or  it 
of  necessity  can  have  no  claims  upon  them. 

And  this  the  Maine  Law,  as  we  have  both  said  and 
shown,  has  not.  It  is  unconstitutional  because  it  is 
unjust,  and  it  is  unjust  because  it  is  unconstitutional. 
It  violates,  both  in  its  spirit  and  its  provisions,  the 
principles  that  lie  at  the  bottom  of  all  free  society,  or 
any  society  that  so  styles  itself.  For,  to  be  free,  a  peo- 
ple must  have  individual  liberty  in  all  directions,  save 
that  alone  which  trenches  on  the  ground  of  another ; 
and  if  entire  curtailment  of  that  personal  liberty  is 
called  freedom,  it  strikes  us  that  we  have  hitherto  been 
all  in  the  dark  in  reference  to  the  whole  subject.  Why, 
let  us  ask,  too,  should  the  morals  of  a  man  be  profess- 
edly thought  of  before  his  liberty,  his  freedom  ?  In- 
deed, what  do  his  morals  amount  to,  if  they  never  have, 
and  never  can  stand  any  test  such  as  temptation  has  to 
offer  ?  And  besides,  by  what  patented  process  shall 
one  set  of  men,  as  legislators,  tell  another  set  of  men, 
as  fellow-citizens  of  the  same  Commonwealth,  that 


72  THE  EAMROD   BROKEN. 

they,  the  legislators,  understand  better  what  is  moral 
than  all  the  rest  put  together  ?  Who,  after  all,  has 
the  keeping  of  the  public  morals,  or  of  individual  mo- 
rality, that  he  shall  be  allowed  to  say  whether  it  is,  or 
is  not,  an  act  of  immorality — nay,  a  crime  outright  — 
for  a  man  to  drink  a  glass  of  stimulus  once,  or  twice, 
or  three  times  a  day  ? 

The  truth  is,  this  matter  has  not  yet  been  looked 
into  as  it  should  be.  There  are  certain  radical  points 
about  it  that  have  not  yet  been  investigated ;  points 
not  merely  of  constitutionality,  but  of  freedom  and  of 
morals.  It  is  not  every  quack  doctor  of  laws  that  un- 
derstands the  magnitude  or  mystery  of  legislative  prin- 
ciples, any  more  than  it  is  every  quack  doctor  of  medi- 
cine who  understands  the  principles  of  the  human 
system. 


THE  LIQUOR  AGENCIES.  73 


X. 

THE    LIQUOR   AGENCIES. 

IT  looks  not  a  little  strange,  not  to  say  inconsistent, 
to  see  men  who  originally  advocated  straight-out  pro- 
hibition, now  defending  the  practice  of  establishing 
State  and  Town  Agencies  for  the  sale  of  liquors.  They 
once  argued  that  it  was  as  wrong  to  sell  in  one  way  as 
in  another,  and  they  ridiculed  the  idea  of  a  "  respecta- 
ble rumseller."  On  all  occasions  they  contended  that 
it  was  not  the  way  in  which  a  thing  was  sold,  so  much 
as  the  thing  sold  itself.  They  used  to  say  the  sin  was 
in  the  rum  and  not  in  the  act  of  selling,  —  no  matter 
whether  it  was  sold  at  the  Parker  House,  or  in  Patrick 
Murphy's  little  grocery  down  in  the  city  cellar.  They 
called  all  spirituous  liquors  "  devil's  broth,"  making 
out  that  our  Saviour  was  in  league  with  the  devil  and 
doing  the  devil's  work  when  he  turned  water  into  wine 
at  Cana  of  .Galilee.  They  claimed  that  no  one  would 
advocate  the  use  of  spirits  even  for  sickness,  unless  they 
themselves  wanted  it  to  drink  on  the  sly.  But  a  change 
has  taken  place,  and  they  say  nothing  against  an 
"Agency"  now.  By  their  own  mouths  let  them  be 
judged  and  they  are  proved  guilty  of  taking  liquor  on 
the  sly.  Truly  consistency  would  be  a  jewel  in  these 
times  with  the  advocates  of  temperance.  Now  we 
7 


74  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

claim  that  it  is  just  as  wrong  to  license  an  agent, 
whether  State  or  town,  as  it  would  be  to  place  a  gen- 
eral enactment  on  the  pages  of  the  statute  book,  by 
virtue  of  which  a  dozen  proper  men  might  be  allowed 
to  sell  in  any  town  of  sufficient  size  to  warrant  it.  If 
licensing  is  to  be  opposed,  so  are  agencies.  There  is 
no  material  or  practical  difference.  Both  mean  the 
same  thing.  They  unite  in  fact  and  form,  but  vary 
only  in  degree.  A  man  may  be  just  as  respectable 
while  standing  behind  his  own  counter  and  selling 
liquors  to  customers  that  happen  in,  as  if  he  were 
transacting  the  same  business  on  behalf  of  the  State, 
or  town,  and  receiving  his  commission  from  another 
source. 

We  have  often  stood  and  looked  at  these  duly-ap- 
pointed liquor  agents,  in  different  places,  watching  tlie 
eminent  satisfaction  and  air  of  authority  with  which 
they  seemed  to  be  invested,  as  they  dealt  out  the 
"  liquid  damnation  "  to  their  eager  customers ;  and 
thought  to  ourselves  how  differently  they  would  have 
felt  about  their  business,  had  they  been  transacting 
the  business  on  their  own  account.  It  makes  great 
odds  whether  #  man  is  selling  rum  for  his  own  account 
or  on  account  of  the  State,  or  town.  And  why  ?  Sim- 
ply because  the  mind  is  wont  to  lift  the  act  into  the 
appearance  of  respectability  when  the  law  authorizes 
or  protects  it,  showing  what  moral  majesty  the  law 
really  enjoys  among  a  law-abiding  people. 

Now,  we  argue,  if  the  agency  system  can  thus  be 
made  respectable  and  above  reproach  by  the  assistance 


THE    LIQUOR  AGENCIES.  75 

of  the  State,  then  a  general  and  proper  license  system 
can  likewise.  Why  not  ?  The  prohibitionists  are  only 
arguing  the  matter  for  us  beforehand.  Every  "  origi- 
nal- package  "  of  liquors  these  agents  sell  is  but  an 
argument  for  the  sale  of  similar  packages,  or  even  of 
other  packages,  by  other  persons  similarly  licensed. 
Who  will  deny  it  ?  If  any  body,  upon  what  ground  ? 
Let  the  ground,  then,  be  stated,  and  we  shall  be  ready 
and  willing  to  hear  or  read  all  that  can  be  said  or 
written  in  its  support.  The  fact  is,  those  who  have 
allowed  themselves  to  be  carried  away  with  this  excite- 
ment of  temperance  reform,  this  mania  for  making 
men  good  whether  they  would  or  no,  have  not  stopped 
to  think  of  this ;  they  never  before  saw  that  all  that 
can  be  said  by  them  against  a  proper  license  system 
can  be  said  with  quite  as  much  force,  and  even  more, 
against  their  agency  system.  But  it  is  even  so,  and  it 
furnishes  another  striking  proof  that  men's  zeal  often- 
times leads  them,  by  a  roundabout  course,  into  the 
very  practices  which  they  set  out  to  denounce  and  con- 
demn ! 

But  look  at  the  present  agency  system,  as  it  is  op- 
erated under  the  Maine  Law  machinery  for  making 
moral  men  more  moral,  and  saints  out  of  yesterday- 
drunkards.  Look  at  the  Massachusetts  agency  as  a 
fair  and  complete  illustration.  We  say  nothing  of  the 
individual  who  controls  it ;  he  has  said  all  that  even 
his  worst  enemy  could  wish  respecting  himself,  in  the 
little  book  of  personal  confessions,  called  "  The  Hen 
Fever."  Possibly  the  Executive  of  Massachusetts 


76  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

considered,  in  making  such  an  appointment,  that  he 
had  at  last,  and  for  once  in  his  life,  succeeded  in  see- 
ing "  the  right  man"  put  into  "  the  right  place." 

Do  any  of  the  readers  of  this  book  remember  the 
complaints  that  were  made  against  this  agent  for  the 
sale  of  liquors  in  Massachusetts,  by  a  certain  town 
agent  in  the  hither  part  of  Maine,  —  which  complaints 
were  made  public  in  the  newspapers  at  the  time  ?  Do 
our  readers  recollect,  too,  the  letters  of  the  Massachu- 
setts agent  in  reply,  in  which  he  stated,  in  a  sort  of 
begging  and  semi-confidential  way,  that  what  was  not 
good  out  of  the  lot  of  champagne  sent  down  from 
Boston,  might  be  returned,  and  it  should  be  replaced 
with  better  ?  Every  one  who  is  in  the  habit  of  reading 
the  papers  will  readily  recall  this  spicy  correspondence 
between  the  Maine  town  agent  and  the  Massachusetts 
State  agent.  From  which  it  plainly  appeared  that  an 
inferior  quality  of  champagne  —  nothing  more  harm- 
ful, probably,  than  Newark  cider  —  had  been  acciden- 
tally or  otherwise  sent  to  a  Maine  gentleman,  who  was 
himself  too  good  a  judge  of  wine  of  that  stamp  to 
suffer  himself  to  be  imposed  upon,  and  who  took  the 
earliest  opportunity  to  prevent  a  fraud  upon  the  com- 
munity whose  agent  he  was,  by  refusing  to  sell  them 
that  inferior,  if  not  valueless  article. 

The  Massachusetts  agent  came  out  of  the  dispute 
with  no  new  laurels  on  his  head,  but,  speaking  some- 
what personally,  and  after  his  own  fashion,  perhaps, — 
with  his  feathers  pretty  well  plucked  out.  We  know 
very  well,  from  personal  observation,  what  a  feeling  of 


THE    LIQUOR  AGENCIES.  77 

mortification  passed  through  the  ranks  of  those  men 
who  really  endeavor  to  be  rational  and  consistent  pro- 
hibitionists at  this  unexpected  disclosure,  and  what  a 
general  expression  of  indignation  there  was  that  a 
State  agency  could,  in  the  hands  of  big  and  little  poli- 
ticians, be  made  the  instrument  to  disgrace  the  princi- 
ples they  profess  to  hold  dear.  But  there  were  the 
facts ;  they  stood  openly  confessed,  on  the  face  of  the 
correspondence  itself ;  and  what  was  to  be  done  next  ? 
Remove  the  agent?  Ah,  —  but  "our  party"  might 
have  something  to  say  about  that !  and  unless  you  let 
us  —  "our  party"  folks,  we  mean,  —  make  the  most 
out  of  the  emoluments  the  office  of  State  agent  may 
be  made  to  produce,  we  won't  stand  by  you  prohibi- 
tionists in  trying  to  fly  your  particular  kite  !  In  fact, 
we  are  the  tail  to  your  prohibition  kite ;  and  you  know 
as  well  as  we  do,  that  you  can  no  more  go  up  without 
a  tail  than  a  comet  could  sweep  the  heavens  without 
the  same  appurtenance  ! 

Abuses,  and  deceits,  and  impositions  must  go  on. 
And  so  they  will  go  on  until  the  time  will  come  when 
they  have  made  head  enough  to  break  down  all  the 
barriers  of  little  politicians  and  men  seeking  power, 
and  correct  themselves.  But  the  agencies  are  just  as 
open  to  abuse  as  the  license  system  ever  was.  Why 
not  ?  If  the  truth  was  published  as  it  ought  to  be,  it 
would  show  this  fact  in  unmistakable  colors.  If  the 
books  of  the  town  agents,  who  are  authorized  to  retail 
liquors  in  certain  quantities  and  for  certain  purposes, 
could  be  made  clear  to  the  eye  of  the  general  reader, 
7* 


78  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

their  pages  would  make  a  confession  such  as  not  every 
opponent  even  of  the  Maine  Law  is  prepared  to  receive. 
But  why,  you  ask  us,  is  not  this  thing  done  ?  For  two 
very  good  and  substantial  reasons.  First,  because  there 
is  no  power  that  can  compel  the  publication  of  any 
such  statistics  ;  and,  second,  because  it  is  unwise  for 
the  interests  of  the  cause  of  prohibition  that  such  a 
thing  should  be  done. 

Yet,  inasmuch  as  the  prohibitionists  have  always 
stood  out  so  stoutly  for  open  and  aboveboard  opera- 
tions in  this  matter,  and  have  been  especially  indus- 
trious in  collecting  their  columns  and  pages  of  statis- 
tics from  every  conceivable  and  inconceivable  quarter, 
which  they  believed  would  fatally  tell  against  a  license 
system,  or,  indeed,  against  any  system  but  their  own, 
- — it  is  now  no  more  than  what  the  public  have  a  perfect 
right  to  demand  of  them,  since  they  have  at  last  got 
the  system  they  asked  for,  to  give  up  every  item  of 
information  they  have  in  their  possession,  that  shall 
throw  any  light  upon  the  operation  of  that  system. 
Why  would  not  this  be  right  ?  Why  is  it  not  a  fair 
demand  to  make  upon  them  ?  Certainly,  if  the  morals 
of  the  people  are  all  they  care  for,  they  will  raise  no 
objections  to  enlightening  the  people  in  respect  to  the 
progress  of  those  morals,  just  in  whatever  way  they 
may  have  the  power. 

We  challenge  the  production  of  such  items,  of  such 
minute  and  complete  testimony,  as  shall  most  properly 
set  the  practical  workings  of  this  Maine  Law  in  its  new 
light.  Let  the  public  go  behind  the  scenes.  Let  them 


THE    LIQUOR  AGENCIES.  79 

see,  if  they  ask  to  see,  to  what  class  of  persons  town 
agents  habitually  sell  liquor,  —  and  in  what  quantities, 
—how  often,  — and  for  what  purposes.  Such  a  record, 
if  accurately  and  impartially  made  up,  would  tell  a 
straighter  story  than  all  the  empty  praises  of  the  law 
itself  in  State  and  county  conventions.  It  would  lay 
the  whole  matter  bare,  —  strip  it  of  its  externals,  — 
pull  the  scales  off  the  eyes  of  sentimentally-moral  peo- 
ple, —  give  a  practical  turn  to  theories  and  theoriz- 
ers,  —  and  enable  the  community  to  take  the  proper 
bearings  of  their  present  position.  Such  a  plan  has 
been  attempted  in  some  cases,  but  never  completely 
carried  out.  It  carries  the  war  too  far  into  Africa 
and  exposes  too  much  hypocrisy  to  suit  the  so-called 
temperance  party. 


80  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 


XI. 

LICENSE  AND   AGENCY. 

IF,  now,  Liquor  Agencies  are  right,  a  proper  license 
system  will  stand.  The  arguments  that  underlie  the 
one,  underlie  the  other  also.  In  fact,  it  is  not  more 
presumptuous  than  it  is  inconsistent,  that  they  who 
deny  the  right  and  propriety  of  licensing  should  be 
willing,  and  even  eager,  to  favor  the  right  and  propri- 
ety of  establishing  agencies.  The  inconsistency  only 
shows  to  what  a  pitch  of  infatuation  even  honestly  in- 
clined persons  may  insensibly  be  led,  if  they  are  not 
careful  how  they  surrender  up  their  individual  opin- 
ions to  the  control  of  others. 

The  license  system  is  said  to  be  liable  to  abuse  ;  so 
is  the  agency  system.  And  whereas  the  former  does 
not  tend  to  make  every  man  a  spy  upon  his  neighbor, 
the  latter  certainly  does  ;  and  whereas  the  former  does 
not  underrate  the  honesty  and  truth  of  the  buyer  and 
consumer,  making  him  the  miserable  knave  and  hypo- 
crite he  secretly,  if  not  openly,  confesses  himself,  the 
latter  does ; .  and  whereas  the  former  is  not  likely  to 
increase  the  ranks  of  immoderate  consumers  and  even 
drunkards,  because  such  a  system  would,  in  itself, 
guard  both  the  consumer  and  the  community,  so  far  as 
any  system  could,  against  the  liability  of  such  an  evil, 


LICENSE   AND   AGENCY.  81 

the  latter  is  likely,  and  even  very  certain,  to  sow  the 
seeds  that  will  in  due  time  yield  as  wretched  a  crop  of 
disease  and  distress,  both  physical  and  moral,  as  ever 
afflicted  any  community  that  aspired  to  the  name  of 
civilization. 

It  is  charged  that  impure  liquors  may  easily  be  sold 
under  a  license  system,  while  the  agency  machinery 
prevents  all  that.  Prevents  it,  indeed !  How  prevent 
it  ?  Was  the  indignant  town  agent  in  Maine  so  very 
sure  of  having  had  good  champagne  in  his  possession, 
even  after  the  State  agent  of  Massachusetts  assured 
him  that  the  cheap  and  wretched  stuff  was  imported, 
and  the  genuine  article  ?  Agents  are  just  as  likely  to 
be  imposed  upon  as  men  who  sell  under  a  license  ;  and 
if  they  are  men  who  profess  never  to  taste  liquor  them- 
selves, as  you  will  find  they  generally  are  in  these 
piping  Maine  Law  times,  then  they  are  even  more  like- 
ly to  suffer  from  imposition.  And  agents  are  just  as 
apt  to  lay  in  with  certain  manufacturers  of  liquors,  too, 
who  know  how  to  doctor  and  to  reduce  with  great  skill, 
and  who  are  ready  enough  to  share  whatever  profits 
the  agents  are  likely  afterwards  to  make.  Why  not  ? 
The  thing  has  been  done ;  and  it  may  be  done  again, 
and  with  impunity.  Is  there  any  thing  in  the  charac- 
ter of  a  State  or  a  town  liquor  agent  that  specially 
clears  him  of  such  influences  as  reach  other  men,  and 
keeps  him,  above  other  sellers  of  liquor,  free  from  the 
contaminating  influences  of  a  trade  that  madmen  are 
eager  to  denounce  as  villany  in  all  its  parts,  points, 
and  relations  ? 


82  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

This  style  of  argument  against  the  sale  of  liquor  in 
any  form,  or  through  any  instrumentality,  has  been 
pushed  a  little  farther  than  it  will  cleverly  go  ;  and 
they  who  have  used  it  most  freely  begin  to  feel  that 
they  have  unconsciously  been  handling  a  two-edged 
sword.  It  cuts  both  ways.  For  if  selling  spirits  in  any 
form,  and  under  the  authority  and  protection  of  law, 
is  a  crime  and  an  unpardonable  sin,  it  is  so  just  as 
much  in  one  case  as  in  another ;  if  the  argument  can 
be  made  to  apply  to  a  license  system,  it  bears  with  just 
the  same  force  upon  the  system  of  selling  through 
agencies.  Sale  is  sale  ;  and  if  it  is  iniquitous  to  sell 
rum  any  way,  there  is  an  end  of  further  disputation ; 
but  if  the  business  may  be  made  "  respectable  "  by  an 
agency  law,  what  is  there,  pray  let  us  know,  to  hinder 
its  being  "  respectable  "  under  a  general  license  law  ? 
No  mind  accustomed  to  reasoning  can  find  any  essen- 
tial difference  in  the  cases  ;  and  yet  an  inflamed  popu- 
lar prejudice  persists  in  refusing  to  look  at  this  matter 
just  as  it  is. 

People  fall  into  the  way  so  naturally,  or,  rather,  so 
readily,  of  supposing  that  what  the  law  authorizes  and 
supports  must  of  course  be  reputable  and  proper. 
Well,  we  agree  it  ought  to  be  so,  although  we  fail 
always  to  find  it  is  so.  Therefore,  if  the  law  says  an 
agency  is  reputable  and  proper,  men  consent  to  throw 
around  the  agency  system  their  esteem  and  respect ; 
albeit  it  is,  considered  in  itself,  open  to  just  the  same 
charges  that  are  made  by  prohibitionists  against  "  rum- 
selling,"  that  the  license  system  is ;  that,  at  least,  no 


LICENSE  AND   AGENCY.  83 

one  can  deny.  Now,  what  we  wish  to  know  is,  —  and 
we  shall  continue  to  put  the  inquiry  till  at  least  one 
candid  mind  somewhere  has  fcmnd  an  answer  for  it 
within  its  own  reasoning  capacity,  —  why  cannot  the 
license  law  bring  up,  if  you  so  please,  the  traffic  in 
spirits  to  as  high  a  standard  of  respectability  as  the 
agency  law  ?  Why  not  ?  sure  enough.  The  virtue  of 
the  deed,  as  is  generally  admitted  by  prohibitionists, 
exists  only  by  virtue  of  the  law  ;  and  we  argue  from 
that  point,  that  the  law,  when  framed  in  a  prudent  and 
proper  spirit,  and  taking  cognizance  of  the  habits  and 
needs  of  men  as  they  are,  is  as  capable  of  giving  char- 
acter and  weight  to  one  system  of  selling  spirits  as  to 
another.  This  ground,  we  feel  very  well  satisfied,  can- 
not be  undermined  by  the  currents  of  any  prejudice  or 
fanaticism.  It  is  real ;  and  will  stand,  because  it  has 
a  substantial  rock-bottom. 

But  temperance  legislators  —  or,  rather,  those 
strongly-biassed  leaders  who  have  hitherto  assumed  the 
control  of  temperance  legislation — have  become  some- 
how possessed  of  an  idea  that  they  must  needs  make 
laws  only  according  to  their  .own  theories  and  abstrac- 
tions, regardless  of  the  wants  and  habits  of  those  for 
whom  such  legislation  is  undertaken,  and  in  a  spirit 
even  of  open  hostility  to  things  as  they  at  present  exist 
all  around  us.  Now,  if  these  theorists  could  but  find 
men  just  as  they  want  them,  possibly  their  crude  and 
inconclusive  plans  might  be  made  to  apply  ;  but  taking 
men  as  they  are,  it  seems  the  height  of  folly  to  seek  to 
make  laws  for  them  which  are  not  at  all  applicable  to 


84  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

their  wants,  against  which  even  their  better  and  freer 
instincts  rebel,  and  which,  even  if  they  were  carried 
out  in  execution  to  the  very  last  letter,  would  produce 
at  the  best  but  a  forced  and  unnatural  public  morality, 
underneath  which  would  flow  in  boiling  currents  the 
whole  lava-tide  of  human  passions  and  vicious  inclina- 
tions. 

A  healthy  and  hearty  state  of  public  morals  is  not 
to  be  secured  by  any  such  mere  gloss  and  patchwork  as 
a  Maine  Law  proposes  ;  for  in  such  a  state  as  that,  all 
men  are  supposed  to  be,  firstly,  free  to  do  as  they 
choose,  within  certain  restraining  limits  which  are  set 
for  the  protection  of  others,  —  and,  secondly,  to  be 
capable  of  exercising  that  continued  self-control  which 
alone  can  lead  both  to  individual  and  public  morality. 
Now,  if  your  Maine  Laws,  or  any  other  laws,  operate 
to  clap  a  man's  individual  freedom  into  jail,  as  it  were, 
he  is  in  no  sense  whatever  a  moral  person,  but  only 
apparently  moral,  because  the  law  will  not  give  him  a 
chance  publicly  to  be  otherwise. 

But  our  thoughts  have  led  us  a  little  wide  from  the 
topic  immediately  in  hand.  We  were  speaking  simply 
of  the  advantages  of  a  license  law  over  an  agency  law, 
and  showing  how,  in  the  first  place,  the  former  was  much 
more  safe  and  proper  than  the  other,  —  and,  second- 
ly, how  the  latter  was  not  a  whit  more  "  respectable," 
in  point  of  fact,  or  through  the  aid  of  the  statute  book, 
than  the  former.  Our  readers  will  be  likely  to  agree 
with  us  in  this  matter  entirely.  We  ask  no  one  to 
admit  what  is  not  true  both  in  nature  and  in  reason  ; 


LICENSE   AND   AGENCY.  85 

but  we  do  insist  that  what  is  perfectly  true  in  both, 
shall  be  admitted  to  that  high  place  in  public  esteem, 
and  public  legislation,   to  which  its   own  permanent 
worth  really  entitles  it. 
8 


86  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 


XII. 

AT   THE   WEST. 

"A  ' LIQUOR  LAW'  has  passed  the  Indiana  House, 
fixing  licenses  at  from  fifty  to  one  thousand  dollars,  at 
the  discretion  of  the  county  commissioners  ;  assessing 
a  fine,  not  less  than  five  nor  more  than  fifty  dollars,  for 
every  instance  of  selling  without  license  ;  prohibiting 
selling  on  the  Sabbath,  or  on  State,  county,  town,  town- 
ship, or  municipal  election  day,  where  the  same  may  be 
held  ;  prohibiting  the  selling  to  persons  in  the  habit  of 
being  intoxicated,  or  to  minors,  under  heavy  penalties, 
with  other  stringent  features." 

"We  take  the  above  paragraph,  in  relation  to  a  license 
law,  from  the  news  columns  of  the  New  York  Tribune. 
It  is  needless  for  us  to  say  that,  in  its  essential  features, 
it  embodies  what  is  practically  necessary  for  the  con- 
venience of  the  community,  and  what,  at  the  same 
time,  seems  jealously  to  guard  the  rights  and  interests 
of  that  community. 

Such  a  movement  as  the  one  indicated  above  is  in 
the  right  direction.  It  certainly  accepts  the  existing 
customs,  habits,  needs,  and  desires  of  the  people,  as 
something  fixed  and  unalterable ;  and  then  it  simply 
proceeds  to  throw  around  the  community  the  protec- 
tion which  the  existence  of  such  habits,  customs,  needs, 
and  desires  naturally  suggests  ;  that  while  the  individ- 


AT   THE   WEST.  87 

ual  shall  not  be  shorn  in  any  way  of  his  individuality, 
the  public  shall  in  no  sense  be  the  sufferers. 

This  single  movement  in  the  Indiana  legislature 
does  but  go  to  prove  the  truth  of  what  we  stated  in  the 
first  chapter  of  this  book ;  namely,  that  the  unnatural 
and  fanatical  excitement  about  teetotalism  and  prohibi- 
tion was  fast  coming  to  its  natural  termination,  and 
that  the  day  of  candid,  calm,  and  thorough  discussion, 
with  a  view  to  the  ascertainment  of  true  principles  and 
the  best  modes  of  action,  had  just  begun  to  dawn. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  several  suggestions  contained 
in  the  paragraph  extracted  above.  In  the  first  place, 
the  price  of  a  license  is  to  be  fixed  high  enough  by  the 
county  commissioners,  who  are  thus  made  directly 
responsible  to  the  people  for  the  proper  execution  of 
their  trust,  to  allow  none  but  proper  men,  as  near  as 
may  be  found  in  any  community,  to  sell  spirits  at  all ; 
the  prices  ranging  all  the  way  from  fifty  dollars  to  a 
thousand.  This  naturally  puts  the  matter  on  pretty 
safe  ground,  to  begin  with. 

Next,  a  fine  of  from  five  dollars  to  fifty  is  liable 
to  be  imposed  for  every  instance  of  selling  without  a 
license  thus  regularly  obtained.  Very  few  persons,  of  a 
character  likely  to  lead  them  to  violate  a  proper  license 
law,  could  well  afford  to  subject  themselves  to  penalties 
of  this  magnitude,  or,  in  default  of  paying  these,  to 
punishment  by  another  process. 

Then  there  are  other  provisions,  all  stringent  and 
proper,  and  every  one  a  formidable  safeguard  against 
the  irruptions  of  cupidity  and  passion  upon  society; 


88  THE   EAMEOD   BROKEN. 

such  as  the  prohibition  of  selling  at  all  upon  the  Sab- 
bath, or  on  any  election  day ;  of  selling  at  all  to  such 
persons  as  are  known  to  make  improper  uses  of  liquor, 
and  are  habitually  intoxicated ;  and  of  selling  at  all  to 
minors,  or,  in  fact,  to  any  other  equally  improper  and 
irresponsible  persons. 

Such  a  law  evidently  was  not  framed  by  "  rum-drink- 
ers," nor  by  men  who  love  the  interests  of  "  rum-sell- 
ers "  above  other  men's  interests ;  but  by  men  who 
have  closely  and  philosophically  observed  the  radical 
elements  of  our  common  nature  ;  who  understand  what 
man  is,  what  are  the  sole  objects  and  purposes  of  gov- 
ernment, and  what  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  term 
"  freedom,"  as  applied  to  the  plan  of  a  government ; 
and  who  are  just  as  deeply  concerned  for  the  highest 
welfare  of  the  people  as  they  are  for  any  merely  per- 
sonal and  selfish  projects  that  may  be  charged  against 
them.  It  is  easy  to  call  them  by  hard  names,  but  that 
practice  has  about  had  its  day  ;  if  it  has  any  effect,  it  is 
only  to  weaken  the  cause  of  those  who  follow  it,  and 
not  of  those  who  have  no  remedy  but  to  submit  to  the 
abuse.  For  why  may  it  not  be  supposed  that  the 
friends  and  supporters  of  a  stringent  license  system  are, 
in  their  hearts,  as  sincere  men,  and  as  ardent  workers 
for  public  morality,  as  they  who  set  out  with  assuming 
that  they  have  all  the  virtue  and  all  the  purity  on  their 
side  ?  It  is  preposterous  to  give  way  to  these  idle  clam- 
orers  and  name-callers  any  longer.  It  is  full  time  they 
were  openly  confronted,  argued  down,  and  put  to  pub- 
lic shame. 


AT  THE  WEST.  89 

What  if,  now,  every  State  legislature  in  the  country 
were  to  take  up  this  most  important  subject  right  where 
it  is  ?  Suppose  they  were  to  establish  such  a  general 
license  system  as  the  Indiana  legislature  is  engaged  in 
perfecting  to-day,  affixing  to  it  all  the  penalties  public 
sentiment  would  fairly  and  reasonably  demand  as  needed 
for  its  own  protection.  "Would  there  be  any  great  risk 
in  such  an  undertaking  as  this?  Certainly,  a  good, 
practical  license  law,  that  stands  a  chance  of  being  lit- 
erally executed,  is  much  better  than  a  theoretically 
strict  prohibitory  law,  whose  execution  is  laughed  at  all 
over  the  State  as  an  utter  impossibility. 

Then  just  look,  for  a  moment,  at  the  character  of 
these  town  agents,  as  regards  their  practical  acquaint- 
ance with  the  business  they  have  been  intrusted  with. 
What  do  they  ordinarily  know  about  it  ?  Most  of  them 
will  tell  you  they  cannot  tell  a  glass  of  brandy  from 
another  glass  of  Newark  cider ;  and  perhaps  they  can- 
not. It  is  at  least  charitable  to  suppose  they  are  fully 
as  ignorant  as  they  confess  themselves  to  be.  These 
agents  are  certainly  not  safe  or  proper  men  to  intrust 
with  dealing  out  liquors  only  for  mechanical,  medicinal, 
and  sacramental  purposes,  for  they  see  no  visible  differ- 
ence between  French  brandy  and  aquafortis,  and  would 
be  as  likely  to  poison  their  customers  with  the  latter  as 
make  them  over-joyful  with  the  former. 

Zealots  and  bigots  have  succeeded  in  warping  the 

public  judgment  in  a  most  fearful  manner;  and  when 

the  time  comes  in  which  the  public  will  see  how  the 

thing  has  been  done, — by  appeals  Alternately  to  their 

8* 


90  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

sympathies  and  their  partisan  passions,  —  they  will  be 
lost  in  wonder  at  thinking  of  the  readiness  with  which 
they  were  made  to  call  black  white,  and  white  black. 
Just  as  if  the  expressed  juice  of  the  grape  and  the 
apple  was  not  as  much  property  to-day  as  it  was  thirty 
years  ago  !  and  as  if  other  pure  liquors  were  not  prop- 
erty after  the  same  principle  !  Absurd  in  the  extreme  ! 
Preposterous  beyond  expression !  Now,  this  very  mode 
of  rating  all  liquors  has  led  to  this  practice  —  to  be 
condemned  and  scouted  by  all  honest  men,  —  of  adul- 
terating and  poisoning  them.  Being  held  in  little  and 
low  esteem  by  law-makers,  they  were  more  liable  than 
ever  to  abuse  in  manufacture  ;  for  since  the  traffic  had 
lost  the  protection  it  had  the  original  right  to  claim  for 
itself,  the  objects  of  that  traffic  naturally  became  the 
instruments  of  vicious  and  abandoned  men,  who  saw 
nothing  in  them  better  than  a  chance,  first,  to  deprave 
the  appetites  of  consumers,  and,  secondly,  to  employ 
that  very  result  for  their  own  purely  selfish  advantage. 
As  a  consequence,  the  destruction  to  health  and  life 
has  been  fearful  to  contemplate  ;  and  stump-speakers 
for  prohibition  have  employed  this  fearful  fact  as  the 
strongest  argument  they  could  advance  for  violently 
rooting  out  the  system  of  selling  liquor  at  all.  But  the 
argument  can  be  made  to  apply  only  to  the  vitiated  sys- 
tem — -  to  the  entire  prevention  of  the  sale  of  poisoned 
liquors.  When  they  seek  to  apply  it  to  the  sale  of  any 
liquors,  those" even  that  are  pure,  they  go  beyond  what 
prudence,  or  reason,  or  common  sense  will  permit  them. 
It  is  not  pure  liquors,  the  real  juice  of  the  apple  and 


AT   THE   WEST.  91 

the  grape,  that  shatters  human  constitutions,  and  de- 
stroys human  life  almost  with  the  rapidity  of  a  virulent 
disease  ;  but  it  is  these  poisoned,  adulterated,  "  doc- 
tored "  drugs,  eating  their  slow  way  into  the  very  soul 
of  the  infatuated  consumer  itself.  It  is  not  such  wine 
as  is  spoken  of  in  the  Book  of  Judges,  that  "  cheereth 
God  and  man ; "  but  it  is  their  villanous  substitutes, 
compounds  such  as  disgrace  our  civilization,  and  that 
no  civilized  laws  ought  for  a  day  to  tolerate  the  sale  of. 
Now  fling  all  your  schemes  of  "  ramrod  "  prohibi- 
tions behind  'your  back.  Look  this  matter  square  in 
the  face.  Understand,  to  start  with,  that  you  cannot 
eradicate  the  desire  for  fermented  beverages  from  the 
human  race,  and  then  settle  down  into  the  sensible  and 
wholly  tenable  opinion,  that  you  may  at  least  enact 
such  legal  provisions  as  will  insure  the  sale  of  pure 
liquors,  and  likewise  secure  their  sale  in  proper  quan- 
tities to  suitable  persons.  All  the  rest  you  must  leave 
to  the  average  public  sentiment  or  personal  habits,  — 
to  individual  exertion,  —  to  moral  suasion,  as  it  is 
called,  to  work  out. 


92  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 


XIII. 

IN  A  NUTSHELL. 

THE  statement  of  this  question,  that  so  long  has  ex- 
cited the  passions  and  prejudices  rather  than  the  minds 
of  the  community,  is  an  exceedingly  simple  one,  and 
the  arguments  are  direct  and  few.  There  is  no  need 
of  their  being  mixed  up  with  foreign  matter,  or  being 
discussed  with  haste  and  heat.  If  they  who  are  eager 
to  be  thought  reformers  would  regard  rather  the  spirit 
and  end  of  their  proposed  reforms  than  the  mere 
ambition  they  possess  to  become  in  some  way  noted, 
they  would  far  better  help  on  the  cause  in  which  they 
so  earnestly  protest  they  have  embarked. 

Let  us  look  at  this  matter  of  manufacturing,  selling, 
and  using  wines  and  spirituous  liquors,  just  as  it  stands 
in  the  calm  light  of  common  sense. 

In  the  first  place,  these  beverages  have  always  been 
made  and  used,  and  no  doubt  always  will  be.  We 
have  abundant  authority  from  the  Scriptures,  which 
we  have  already  furnished  in  these  pages,  to  show  that 
the  use  of  fermented  liquors,  at  least,  is  as  old  as  man's 
own  t  recorded  existence  ;  and  to  show,  likewise,  that 
the  wise  and  good  of  all  time  have  indulged  in  that 
use,  many  of  them  even  immoderately  and  to  their  own 
shame,  —  as  Noah  and  others,  —  and  that  our  Saviour 


IN   A   NUTSHELL.  93 

himself  set  an  example  of  using  wine  at  public  festivals, 
which  cannot  be  put  aside.  So  much  for  fermented 
liquors. 

As  for  those  that  are  distilled,  by  modern  processes, 
we  have  the  testimony  of  all  medical  men  whose  opin- 
ions are  not  infected  with  the  mania  of  teetotal  parti- 
sanship, that  the  use  of  pure  liquors,  thus  distilled,  is 
beneficial  to  the  human  system,  and  that  there  are  nu- 
merous instances  in  which  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that 
such  liquors  should  be  used.  Even  those  who  condemn 
their  use  altogether,  are  constrained  by  the  heavy  hand 
of  disease  and  physical  disaster  to  impress  them  into 
their  own  service,  and  are  very  apt,  even  then,  to  con- 
tinue their  use,  under  cover  of  medicinal  reasons,  even 
after  the  actual  calls  of  the  disease  become  only  imagi- 
nary. But  let  all  that  pass.  What  we  merely  wish  to 
deduce  from  this  is,  that  inasmuch  as  liquor  is  thus 
made  necessary  to  the  race,  its  manufacture  and  sale 
are  both  necessary  and  right  also. 

But  the  liquor,  we  insist,  must  be  only  pure  liquor. 
The  community,  as  purchasers  and  consumers  of  it, 
have  a  right  to  demand  this  much,  and  to  assert  and 
maintain  that  it  shall  be  proved  to  be  pure  to  their  own 
complete  satisfaction.  Here  is  just  where  all  the  trouble 
arises.  This  is  the  head  and  front  of  the  whole  offend- 
ing. The  stream  is  poisoned  now  at  its  source,  and 
there  is  where  its  purification  must  of  necessity  begin. 

Pure  liquors  do  not  generate  a  brood  of  loathsome 
drunkards,  and  it  cannot  be  proved  against  them.  We 
simply  assert  what  any  one  either  knows,  or  can  readily 


94  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

acquaint  himself  with.  It  is  the  arbitrary  disposition 
of  certain  men  and  certain  parties  that  has  forced  the 
pure  liquors  out  of  their  open  and  proper  use,  driven 
their  sale  into  dark  and  out-of-the-way  corners  and 
dens,  and  thus  put  it  in  the  power  of  back-door  sellers 
to  doctor  and  adulterate  them  at  their  own  pleasure — • 
which  of  course  means  only  their  own  pecuniary  inter- 
est. First  making  it  a  stimulating  excitement  to  run 
the  gantlet  of  public  prejudice  in  order  to  get  a  glass 
of  liquor,  it  naturally  enough  follows  that  liquor  thus 
surreptitiously  obtained  becomes  in  itself  a  double  stim- 
ulus, and  is  drank  in  at  least  double  quantities,  and 
with  double  the  natural  excitement,  —  first,  for  its  own 
sake,  and  second,  on  account  of  the  success  of  achieving 
its  difficult  possession.  So  that,  in  fact,  the  very  means 
that  have  been  employed  by  fanatical  reformers,  seek- 
ing power  and  notoriety  rather  than  the  thorough  and 
permanent  good  of  the  race,  to  banish  spirituous  liquors 
from  general  use,  and  drive  them  to  those  back  corners 
and  out-of-the-way  places  where  they  are  made  to  wear 
the  aspect  of  criminality  and  degradation,  —  these  very 
means,  we  say,  are  the  ones  that  have,  more  than  any 
thing  else,  caused  the  adulteration  and  poisoning  of  good 
liquors,  and  produced  a  crop  of  hard  drinkers  and 
wretched  drunkards,  whose  vice  will  be  transmitted  al- 
most to  their  latest  posterity.  Let  teetotalers  look  at 
this  in  any  other  light  if  they  can  ;  we  tell  them  these 
statements  are  true  to  the  letter,  and  statistics,  as  well 
as  personal  observation  and  reflection,  are  at  all  times 
ready  to  verify  them  abundantly. 


IN   A   NUTSHELL.  95 

The  use  of  a  pure  article,  then,  being  conceded  as 
a  necessity,  no  abuse  of  an  impure  article  will  war- 
rant arbitrary  legislation  as  against  the  article  that  is 
pure ;  for  this  would  be  resting  the  principles  of  legis- 
lation iipon  a  most  insecure  basis,  and  opening  the  way 
for  the  free  working  of  the  most  unjust  and  tyrannical 
motives  in  all  popular  enactments.  Right  legislation 
can  only  be  done  on  a  right  basis  ;  and  that,  of  neces- 
sity, must  be  permanent  and  stable.  The  moment 
prejudice,  or  mere  policy,  comes  in  and  usurps  the 
place  of  principle,  the  whole  structure  of  government 
institutions  totters ;  there  is  no  security  any  where  ; 
the  same  motive  that  is  applied  for  a  party  to-day  may 
be  applied  with  tenfold  power  against  it  to-morrow. 
Hence  any  reflecting  mind  can  see  at  once,  that  the 
use  of  pure  liquors  ought  not  in  justice  to  be  con- 
trolled, or  even  modified,  by  the  abuse  of  impure  ones. 
The  two  things  have  no  sort  of  relationship  with  one 
another. 

To  protect  the  community  against  even  the  worst 
consequences  of  excess,  legislators  cannot  go  to  work 
to  cut  off  all  supplies ;  that  is  folly  itself,  and  worse 
than  folly.  As  well  might  it  be  argued  that,  to  protect 
the  body  of  the  public  against  the  excesses  of  a  few 
men's  passions,  the  legislators  have  a  right  to  deprive 
them  of  their  lives,  as  the  surest  way  of  quelling  their 
riotous  passions  !  that  is,  that  any  proposed  end  —  and 
only  a  theoretic,  and  in  no  sense  a  practical  end,  at 
that  —  may  be  made  to  secure  any  sort  of  means  for  its 
successful  attainment !  Such  reasoning,  we  had  sup- 


96  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

posed,  had  been  blown  to  the  four  winds  long  ago. 
No ;  as  the  passions  of  men  must  undergo  proper 
restraint,  either  at  the  hands  of  the  individual  or  of 
society,  so  must  the  abuses  of  liquor  consumption  be 
restrained,  —  and  either  by  each  individual  for  himself, 
or  else  by  the  strong  and  united  hands  of  society.  If 
the  use  of  liquor  tends  to  inflame  passions,  so  as  to 
make  the  work  of  self-control  still  more  difficult,  then 
the  individual  must  needs  forego  the  use  of  liquors 
altogether  ;  for  he  owes  as  much  as  that  to  society,  and 
a  good  deal  more  to  himself. 

It  is  thus  the  simple  power  to  control  the  sale  of 
liquors  that  legislators  possess,  and  not  beyond  that ;  to 
the  total  prohibition  of  such  sale,  they  cannot  properly 
and  safely  go.  They  presume  too  much,  and  under- 
take too  much,  when  they  get  upon  this  track  ;  to  at- 
tempt by  any  mere  legislative  coup  de  grace  to  expel, 
or  outroot,  the  desire  of  spirits  and  wine  from  man  as 
he  happens  in  these  times  to  be  constituted,  is  about 
as  rational  a  business,  and  as  likely  to  prove  successful, 
as  a  tilt  in  full  feather  against  the  ancient  institution 
of  windmills. 

Then  if  a  person  has  a  right  to  use  (not  abuse) 
pure  (not  impure)  liquors,  the  right  to  manufacture 
and  sell  may  be  not  the  more  disputed  ;  for  one  goes 
along  with  the  other.  And  the  purchaser,  whether 
at  first  hand  or  second  hand,  has  a  right  to  be  secured 
against  the  possibility  of  fraud  and  adulteration  in 
his  purchases.  The  law  protects  him  against  fraud  in 
other  articles  of  manufacture  and  commerce,  and  is 


IN   A  NUTSHELL.        «  97 

manifestly  just  as  able  to  protect  him  here.  And  this 
much  both  consumer  and  seller  have  a  right  to  demand 
of  the  law-makers  ;  who,  while  they  are  careering  off 
against  the  natural  appetites  and  instincts  of  human 
nature,  betray  the  wrong  spirit  that  moves  them  by 
suffering  the  rights  of  persons  all  around  them  to  go 
unprotected.  This  shows  plainly  enough  that  it  is  not 
so  much  the  practical  protection  and  benefit  of  the 
community  at  which  they  aim,  as  the  wish  for  noto- 
riety, for  power,  or  to  marry  their  names  for  a  brief 
day  to  a  thoroughly  impractical  reform  in  the  public 
morals. 

We  insist,  therefore,  that  there  is  but  one  course  left 
open,  by  which  to  approach  this  matter  through  the 
authority  of  legislation ;  and  that  is,  by  limiting  and 
restraining  all  liabilities  to  abuse  either  the  sale  or  use 
of  liquors,  and  confining  the  work  of  the  law  to  that 
alone  ;  by  appointing  only  proper  men  to  sell  spirits, 
and  they  to  sell  only  to  those  who  are  certain  to  use 
them  properly ;  to  surround  both  the  manufacture  and 
the  sale  with  such  all-sufficient  safeguards  as  shall  pro- 
tect the  community  abundantly ;  and  afterwards  to  let 
the  power  of  moral  suasion  have  free  course,  and  do 
its  work  most  thoroughly  and  permanently. 

Here  are  the  leading  points  of  the  case,  and  the  sug- 
gestions of  such  measures  as  any  free  community  has 
an  undisputed  right  to  adopt  for  its  own  safety  and 
progress.  But  for  society  to  go  beyond  the  power 
properly  delegated  to  it,  though  tacitly,  it  may  be,  by 
the  individual,  and  trample  down  individual  rights  and 
9 


98  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

liberties,  is  plainly  enough  to  set  up  its  authority  as  a 
laughing-stock,  and  to  court  the  jeers  and  ridicule,  in- 
stead of  the  respect  and  obedience,  of  the  great  body 
of  men  of  which  that  society  is  composed. 


A  SONG  OF  BURNS.  99 


XIV. 

A   SONG    OF   BURNS. 

THE  public  festivals  recently  held  all  over  the  land, 
in  honor  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birthday 
of  Robert  Burns,  the  world-beloved  poet  of  Scotland, 
certify  in  no  common  manner  to  the  estimation  in 
which  he  is  held ;  not  merely  by  those  who  affect  a 
love  of  literature,  but  by  all  humanity ;  by  poor  men 
as  well  as  studious  scholars  ;  by  those  who  wear  "  hod- 
den gray  "  as  well  as  royal  purple  ;  by  rich  and  hum- 
ble alike  ;  by  known  and  unknown.  Philosophers  and 
politicians,  clergymen  and  men  of  letters,  vied  with  one 
another  to  celebrate  his  deserved  praise.  They  pro- 
fessed to  admire  the  man,  as  well  as  the  poet,  and  to 
subscribe  in  toto  to  his  large  and  generous  sentiments 
concerning  all  things  that  pertain  to  the  happiness  of 
human  nature. 

Well,  we  propose  in  this  place  simply  to  quote  one  of 
this  same  Robert  Burns'  popular  songs.  It  came  di- 
rectly from  the  ploughman-poet's  heart,  —  as,  indeed, 
all  his  songs  did,  —  and  is  therefore  of  all  the  more 
intensity  and  truth.  Here  it  is. 


100  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

THE   CURE   FOE,  ALL   CARE. 

i. 

"  No  churchman  am  I  for  to  rail  and  to  write, 
No  statesman  nor  soldier  to  plot  or  to  fight, 
No  sly  man  of  business,  contriving  a  snare  — 
For  a  big-bellied  bottle's  the  whole  of  my  care. 

ii. 

"  The  peer  I  don't  envy  —  I  give  him  his  bow  ; 
I  scorn  not  the  peasant,  though  ever  so  low ; 
But  a  club  of  good  fellows,  like  those  that  are  here, 
And  a  bottle  like  this,  are  my  glory  and  care. 

in. 

"  Here  passes  the  squire  on  his  brother  —  his  horse  ; 
There  centum  per  centum,  the  cit  with  his  purse  ; 
But  see  you  the  Crown,  how  it  waves  in  the  air  ! 
There  a  big-bellied  bottle  still  eases  my  care. 

IV. 

"  The  wife  of  my  bosom,  alas  !  she  did  die  ; 
For  sweet  consolation  to  church  I  did  fly  ; 
I  found  that  old  Solomon  proved  it  fair, 
That  a  big-bellied  bottle's  a  cure  for  all  care. 

v. 

"  I  once  was  persuaded  a  venture  to  make  ; 
A  letter  informed  me  that  all  was  to  wreck  — 
But  the  pursy  old  landlord  just  waddled  up  stairs, 
With  a  glorious  bottle  that  ended  my  cares. 

VI. 

"  « Life's  cares  they  are  comforts,'  — a  maxim  laid  down 
By  the  bard  —  what  d'ye  call  him  ?  —  that  wore  the  black 

gown ; 

And  faith  I  agree  with  th'  old  prig  to  a  hair  ; 
For  a  big-bellied  bottle's  a  heaven  of  care  ! " 


A  SONG  OP  BURNS.  101 

[A  Stanza  added  in  a  Masonic  Lodge.] 

"  Then  fill  up  a  bumper,  and  make  it  o'erflow, 
And  honors  masonic  prepare  for  to  throw  ; 
May  every  true  brother  of  the  compass  and  square 
Have  a  big-bellied  bottle  when  harassed  with  care  ! " 

The  immortal  song  of  King  Solomon  is  in  the  same 
strain  with  this  of  Burns  ;  for  he  was  a  poet  as  well  as 
the  Scottish  cottager.  And  though  the  exquisite  beau- 
ty of  the  Hebrew  poetry  is  nearly  lost  in  the  process  of 
translation,  yet  you  will  find  this  same  sentiment  of 
Burns  in  Proverbs,  chapter  31,  verses  6  and  7,  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Give  strong  drink  unto  him  that  is  ready  to 
perish,  and  wine  unto  those  that  be  of  heavy  heart. 
Let  him  drink,  and  forget  his  poverty,  and  remember 
his  misery  no  more." 

In  Burns'  time,  not  only  did  good  and  accepted 
Masons  indulge  in  the  use  of  liquor  without  disparage- 
ment or  disgrace,  but  good  Christians  likewise.  It  is 
within  the  ready  recollection  of  many  and  many  a  per- 
son now  living  among  us,  that  it  was  once  the  custom 
for  clergymen  to  keep  good  spirits  constantly  on  hand. 
They  had  them  on  their  sideboards ;  and  whenever 
they  went  about  in  their  parish,  the  first  and  last  thing 
they  would  be  invited  to  do  was,  to  take  spirits.  They 
invariably  imbibed  on  the  occasion  of  funerals  and  wed- 
dings ;  then  it  was  considered  an  indispensable  article. 
And  lecturers  will  reply  to  this,  —  "  0,  but  the  moral 
sentiment  of  the  community  has  changed  wonderfully 
since  that  time!"  "  Yes,"  —  we  reply  —  "  and  be- 
cause the  rum  has  become  so  bad,  and  generally  for  no 


102  THE  EAMROD  BROKEN. 

other  reason ! "  The  effects  of  adulterated  liquors 
actually  drove  decent  men  into  total  abstinence. 

In  those  old  times  to  which  we  allude,  spirit  was  a 
soother  of  sorrow,  and,  as  Burns  sings  along  with  Solo- 
mon, it  was  a  "  cure  for  all  care."  It  was  naturally 
expected  that  the  man  who  possessed  pure  religious 
sentiments,  possessed  pure  liquors  likewise;  and  the 
expectation  was  rarely  disappointed  in  those  days. 
Lord  Byron  says,  in  one  of  his  most  popular  poems, — 

"  There's  nought,  no  doubt,  so  much  the  spirit  calms 
As  rum  and  true  religion." 

Now,  we  admit,  that,  as  the  present  generation  have 
been  educated  to  think  and  believe,  these  lines  of  By- 
ron sound  profanely  in  the  ears  of  many,  and  especially 
in  the  ears  of  fanatics ;  but  the  man  of  a  philosophic 
turn  of  mind  understands  their  true  meaning,  and  lets 
the  light,  of  real  life  fall  upon  them  as  it  should.  They 
were  the  reflection  of  the  sentiment  of  the  age  in  which 
Byron  lived.  In  Matthew,  chapter  llth,  verse  19th, 
we  read,  "  The  Son  of  man  came  eating  and  drink- 
ing, and  they  say,  Behold  a  man  gluttonous  and  a 
wine-bibber,  a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners."  For 
doing  just  as  our  Saviour  did,  excellent  Christian  men 
subject  themselves,  even  now,  to  the  same  indignities 
which  were  cast  upon  him.  The  same  spirit  of  perse- 
cution and  detraction  lives-  in  this  day,  that  lived  in 
his.  Human  nature  has  undergone  little  or  no  change ; 
it  is  fully  as  bad  now  as  it  was  then.  And  it  is  like- 
wise no  worse  for  men  to  use  wine  now  in  moderate 


A  SONG  OF  BURNS.  103 

and  proper  quantities  than  it  was  then.  The  change 
that  public  sentiment  has  undergone  since  his  time 
does  not  change  the  absolute  character  of  the  practice. 
The  fault  is  now,  as  it  was  then,  in  excess ;  and  it  is 
made  to  appear  more  vicious  and  glaring  than  ever,  by 
the  base  adulterations  to  which  all  originally  pure  and 
good  liquors  have  since  been  subjected. 


104  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 


XV. 

NEWLY   INVENTED    CRIME. 

THE  most  preposterous  and  presumptuous  point 
about  this  prohibitory  Maine  Law  business  is,  that 
what  was  never  before  considered  a  crime  by  common 
law,  —  that  is,  by  common  sense,  and  the  commonly 
accepted  moral  sense  of  the  community,  —  is  suddenly 
legislated  into  a  new  form  and  character,  with  penal- 
ties attached  to  the  same  that  bear  no  sort  of  relation 
to  it,  and  such  as  no  self-governed  community  of  men 
will  ever  allow  or  submit  to.  If  one  legislature  can 
resolve  that  selling  liquor  is  a  crime,  —  we  mean  pure 
liquor,  of  course,  —  then  a  subsequent  legislature  can 
resolve  that  such  an  act  is  no  crime  ;  and  where  is  the 
definition  ?  Once  depart  from  the  platform  of  common 
law  and  common  sense  in  such  a  matter,  whether  for 
party  purposes  or  for  professedly  moral  purposes,  and 
we  are  all  at  sea  ;  there  is  no  stability  whatever  in  the 
administration  of  justice,  because  it  ceases  to  commend 
itself  as  common  and  equal  justice  to  the  moral  sense 
of  the  public. 

Indeed,  we  can  think  of  few  illustrations  of  the  ten- 
dency on  the  part  of  ambitious  men  to  establish  a  tyr- 
anny, in  case  they  see  the  chance  of  obtaining  power 
at  all,  more  pointed  and  noticeable  than  this  very  fact 


NEWLY  INVENTED   CRIME.  105 

furnishes.  They  are  not  content  with  employing  the 
legislative  functions  for  their  proper  and  limited  pur- 
poses, but  must  needs  try  to  choke  rigid  and  austere 
morals  clown  the  throats  of  the  community,  whose, 
throats  would  not  be  one  half  as  much  harmed  by  be- 
ing asked  to  swallow  good  wine  or  spirit  in  their  stead ; 
for  it  would  be  infinitely  better  that  men  swallowed 
proper  quantities  of  good  liquor,  which  find  a  proper 
receptacle  in  the  stomach,  than  that  they  belch  up 
fiery  curses  —  more  fiery  than  even  the  "blue  ruin" 
that  is  now  so  freely,  though  slyly,  sold  for  a  beverage. 
Now,  we  openly  defy  any  body  of  men,  whether  re- 
formers or  not  reformers,  to  prove  that  the  act  of  selling 
pure  liquor  is  a  crime,  in  any  possible  and  natural 
sense ;  or  that  to  thus  stigmatize  it  is  any  other  than 
the  most  arbitrary  act  which  could  be  undertaken  by 
legislators.  For  crimes  are,  in  their  very  nature,  read- 
ily defined  and  easy  of  apprehension  ;  they  cannot  be 
this  thing  to-day  and  that  thing  to-morrow  ;  their  spirit 
and  character  must  of  necessity  be  always  one  and  the 
same,  betraying  the  most  decided  and  unmistakable 
intent  of  evil,  —  and  evil  against  others ;  and  their  lim- 
itations are  fixed  in  every  enlightened  mind  by  the 
legislation  and  precepts  of  the  past.  And,  what  is  still 
more  than  all,  it  is  to  be  considered  that  the  spirit  of 
advancing  civilization  is  not  given  to  adding  to  the  list 
of  recognized  crimes  by  special  and  forced  legislation, 
but  that  it  is  disposed  rather  to  shorten  the  list ;  and 
not  so  much,  either,  by  yielding  to  any  applications  of 
pseudo-philanthropy  or  mock  sentimentality,  as  by  pre- 


106  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

ferring  to  rely  upon  those  deep  and  boundless  moral 
resources  that  lie  imbedded  in  the  very  nature  of  every 
society  that  pretends  to  true  progress  in  civilization. 

There  is  great  crudeness  and  haste  of  thought  among 
new  and  inexperienced  lawgivers  on  this  point,  and  it 
would  be  well  to  get  the  better  of  the  fault  at  as  early 
a  day  as  may  be.  The  sooner  men  are  divested  of  such 
an  idea,  baseless  and  vicious  as  it  is  in  every  aspect,  as 
that  a  mere  legislative  act,  secured  by  no  matter  what 
severity  and  steadiness  of  external  pressure,  can  put  a 
new  face  upon  the  moral  sense  of  society,  converting 
innocent  acts  of  a  sudden  into  acts  of  criminality,  and 
dooming  men  who  are  protected  in  a  traffic  to-day 
by  the  law,  to  degradation  to-morrow  because  this  law 
refuses  any  longer  to  protect  them,  —  the  better  will  it 
be  found  for  the  health  and  stability  of  the  entire  social 
system. 

To  a  certain  extent,  and  only  to  a  certain  extent,  we 
concede  that  the  sale  of  liquors  may  be  called  criminal ; 
and  that  is,  when  the  sale  goes  to  betray  fraud  and 
vicious  intent.  First,  remember  that  liquors  are  de- 
manded by  the  community,  and  always  will  be,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  desire  for  their  use,  which  is  inherent 
in,  and  instinctive  with,  human  nature  ;  then  we  sub- 
mit, that  in  attempting  to  supply  this  demand,  the  law 
has  a  perfect  and  indefeasible  right  to  step  in  and  take 
cognizance  of  all  attempts  at  fraud  and  improprieties 
of  sale,  and  to  stamp  such  attempts  with  the  brand  of 
criminality,  affixing  penalties  to  correspond. 

It  is  at  exactly  this  point  that  we  ask  for  legal  inter- 


NEWLY  INVENTED   CRIME.  107 

vention,  to  furnish  protection  for  the  consumers,  and, 
incidentally,  to  prevent  by  this  very  method  any  harms 
coming  to  the  body  of  society.  Here  is  just  where  the 
law  may  be  useful  and  effective  ;  and  it  is  here  that 
we  demand  it  shall  be  applied.  Law  is  for  protection 
against  crime  and  wrong ;  not  for  the  mere  purpose  of 
impressing  the  community  with  a  sense  of  the  power 
and  strength  of  the  dominant  party  ;  when  it  comes  to 
this  last  pitch,  it  abandons  all  its  claims  of  relationship 
to  the  eternal  and  immutable  principles  of  justice,  and 
becomes  the  mere  mouthpiece  of  an  excited  rabble, 
temporarily  organized  with  leaders  and  catch-words, 
and  presuming  to  take  the  very  name  of  Progress  and 
Purity  in  vain.  This  deserves  to  be  remembered. 

We  agree,  as  the  logic  of  the  other  side  would  at- 
tempt to  prove,  that  a  crime  is  an  open  infraction  of 
the  law  ;  but  it  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  argued  that  all 
infractions  of  every  law,  or  even  of  every  criminal  law, 
—  technically  speaking,  —  are  criminal.  Because,  if 
that  were  so,  as  we  showed  only  a  little  way  back  in 
this  chapter,  legislatures  have  but  to  say  each  year 
what  shall  and  what  shall  not  be  crimes  for  that  year, 
and,  their  resolutions  being  law,  of  course  every  thing 
that  contradicts  their  arbitrariness  at  once  becomes 
criminal.  This  is  absurd,  not  to  say  extremely  dan- 
gerous ;  indeed,  it  is  needless  to  say  that  no  civilized 
society  could  exist,  as  a  civilized  society,  upon  such  a 
basis  as  this  from  one  year's  end  to  another.  Any  man 
of  good  sense  can  readily  see  that  all  power,  and  all 
permanency,  would  rest  in  the  hands  of  a  few  men, 


108  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

called  legislators  ;  and  every  one  knows  that  the  same 
machinery  that  made  these  men  legislators  in  the  first 
place,  for  a  specific  purpose,  would  continue  to  be  the 
controlling  power  of  the  State  always.  And  what, 
pray,  is  this  but  the  rankest  and  most  unmitigated  tyr- 
anny ?  Who  would  not  as  soon  and  as  fervently  pray 
to  be  delivered  from  this,  as  from  that  of  a  Louis 
Napoleon,  or  of  a  Ferdinand  II.,  or  of  any  Austrian 
monarch  that  ever  made  his  subjects  both  fear  and 
hate  him  ? 

We  must  keep  the  great  fact  continually  in  mind, 
that  with  the  advance  of  civilization  the  list  of  crimes, 
and  especially  of  flagrant  crimes,  diminishes.  That  is, 
a  man  would  not  now,  as  formerly,  be  hung  for  theft, 
or  some  other  equally  trifling  fault ;  the  apparent  dis- 
proportion between  the  offence  and  the  penalty  is  in 
this  case  so  great  as  to  render  the  act  of  administering 
the  punishment  an  absolute  injustice ;  which,  in  an  age 
when  moral  sentiment  is  very  much  awakened,  would 
amount  to  as  great  a  fault  as  the  unpunished  crime 
itself.  If  civilization  conceals  a  living  definition  within 
its  name,  that  definition  must  be  that  it  adjusts  the 
scales  of  justice  more  delicately  than  they  were  ever 
adjusted  before  ;  not  that  it  dives  into  the  forests  of 
barbaric  days  again,  and  drags  out  bloody  and  base 
modes  of  punishment  from  their  hiding  places,  in  order 
to  apply  them  to  deeds  with  which  they  have  no  rela- 
tion. 

Our  ideas  of  justice  must  rest  upon  stability,  or  they 
are  good  for  nothing.  As  Truth  is  said  to  bo  "  eter- 


NEWLY  INVENTED   CRIME.  109 

nal,"  so  must  Justice  be  eternal ;  if  less,  it  can  only 
be  vacillating',  unsettled,  shifting,  and  unreliable.  And 
the  attempt  to  found  great  nations,  and  build  up  great 
states  upon  a  foundation  like  this,  is  as  preposterous 
and  idle  as  it  was,  according  to  Scripture  history,  to 
order  the  over-burdened  Israelites  to  make  bricks  with- 
out straw.  There  can  be  no  society,  except  it  rests  on 
stable  and  permanent  foundations  ;  and  those  must  be 
nothing  less  than  living  ideas  and  principles.  Not  no- 
tions and  wild  theories  ;  not  changeful  prejudices  and 
whimsical  passions; — but  principles,  that  include  all 
theories  possible  to  be  spun,  and  try  them  at  last  by 
the  laws  of  their  own  stern  and  impartial  judicature. 
10 


110  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 


XVI. 

A    GOOD   TEXT. 

"  As  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  also 
to  them  likewise." 

This  is  the  text  to  which  we  refer,  and  we  style  it  a 
"  good  one  ;  "  good  for  practical  use  and  service ;  not 
something  merely  to  hang  a  discourse  upon,  but  some- 
thing out  of  which  to  extract  an  excellent  rule  of  liv- 
ing. Considered  thus,  AVC  think  we  may  sincerely  rec- 
ommend it  to  every  reader  of  this  present  volume. 

Since  the  different  chapters  of  this  book  have  been 
passing  through  the  press,  we  took  the  liberty,  one  day, 
to  show  the  proof  sheets  of  a  part  of  the  chapter  which 
treats  of  what  the  Bible  has  to  say  about  the  use  of 
wine,  to  a  well-known  abstinence  man,  and  a  friend  of 
our  own  besides.  Our  object  was  simply  to  be  set  right 
on  any  point  where  we  might  happen  to  be  wrong,  and 
to  draw  out  from  one  who,  we  knew,  would  oppose 
our  views  with  great  earnestness,  the  very  hardest  ar- 
guments and  objections  that  could  be  adduced  from  that 
side.  On  reading  the  sheets  alluded  to,  our  teetotal 
friend  at  once  answered  that  the  wine  mentioned  in  the 
Scripture  was  not  intoxicating.  That  we  almost  ex- 
pected him  to  say,  just  as  we  expect  many  others  to 
answer,  in  their  first  impulse,  on  reading  the  first  of  that 


A  GOOD   TEXT.  Ill 

same  chapter.  But  we  were  prepared  for  our  friend, 
and  rejoined  by  asking  him  to  read  the  whole  chap- 
ter, which  most  conclusively  proves  that  the  Scripture 
wines  were  intoxicating.  To  this,  after  giving  it  his 
thoughtful  perusal,  he  could  make  no  sufficient  answer ; 
he  certainly  could  not  think  of  denying  what,  upon  its 
very  face,  was  so  apparent,  and  what  is  so  well  sup- 
ported besides.  There  was  no  resource  left  him,  there- 
fore, but  to  admit  our  two  main  arguments;  viz.,  that 
the  Scriptures  do  openly  countenance  and  approve  the 
use  of  wine  in  proper  quantities,  and  that  that  same 
wine  was  capable  of  producing  intoxication.  We  re- 
joiced not  over  this  compelled  admission  of  our  teetotal 
friend  as  any  merely  personal  victory  of  our  own,  but 
as  additional  evidence  that  we  had,  in  conscientious- 
ly searching  for  the  truth,  actually  found  it.  That 
was  all. 

But  still,  even  with  this  admission  on  his  tongue,  our 
friend  was  compelled  to  offer  some  sort  of  a  reply  to  our 
position  ;  he  thought  it  his  duty,  as  he  certainly  seemed 
to  feel  it  within  his  power,  to  destroy  the  force  of  that 
position ;  and  so  he  stated  that  there  was  one  passage 
of  Scripture  which  would  cut  down  our  entire  argu- 
ment, —  overthrow  the  whole  superstructure  by  under- 
mining its  foundations.  That  passage  of  Scripture  was 
the  one  with  which  this  present  chapter  begins ;  and  is 
to  be  found  in  the  31st  verse  of  the  6th  chapter  of 
Luke's  Gospel :  "  As  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to 
you,  do  ye  also  to  them  likewise." 

By  this  quotation  he  meant  as  follows :  If  you  would 


112  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

like  to  have  another  man  lead  you  into  drunkenness  by 
selling  you  wines  and  liquors,  then  go  and  lead  him 
into  drunkenness  by  selling  them  to  him ;  otherwise, 
not.  That  was  his  whole  and  his  final  argument. 

Now,  let  us  not  omit  to  look  even  at  this,  and  look  at 
it,  too,  with  all  the  care  and  candor  we  have  endeavored 
to  bestow  upon  the  rest  of  the  texts  that  have  been  the 
subject  of  our  investigation.  Is  not  this  text,  in  fact, 
a  better  argument,  and  a  much  stronger  one,  for  us 
than  for  him  ?  We  conscientiously  think  it  is.  It  does 
go  most  directly  to  fortify  our  own  position,  as  we  have 
already  taken  it  on  this  question.  For  what  man,  we 
ask,  would  wish,  or  be  willing,  to  have  his  own  indi- 
vidual morals,  or  his  religious  belief,  cut  and  dried  for 
him  by  any  process  of  law  ?  Not  a  single  one  that  we 
know  of,  or  ever  expect  to  know.  If  there  is  such  a 
one,  then  we  take  the  liberty  to  tell  him  that  his  mo- 
rality is  not  morality,  because  it  does  not  spring'  from 
himself,  but  proceeds  from  the  external  pressure  of  law 
and  legal  surroundings.  A  man,  to  be  a  good  man, 
must  needs  be  such,  of  and  because  of  himself;  not 
because  he  cannot  find  a  chance  to  be  a  bad  man  with 
safety.  It  is  the  heart,  the  thought,  the  steady  inclina- 
tion, that  gives  character  to  the  individual ;  not  his 
outward  acts  alone,  which  may  easily  be  covered  up 
under  the  garb  of  hypocrisy,  and  which  he  may  even 
be  compelled  to  conceal  on  account  of  the  severity  of 
the  law. 

No,  no ;  it  is  never  for  himself  that  a  man  wants  a 
law  written  on  the  pages  of  the  statute  book,  but  only 


A   GOOD   TEXT.  113 

for  his  neighbor,  —  for  somebody  else,  at  any  rate. 
And  all  legislation  that  has  for  its  object  the  attempt 
to  control  human  conscience,  is  travelling  on  the 
straight  road  to  despotism,  at  which  point  it  will  be 
certain  to  arrive  iri  no  very  long  time.  And  all  those 
reformers,  and  classes  of  reformers,  who  seek  to  call  in 
the  aid  of  law  and  authority  to  perform  their  work  for 
them,  are  much  more  apt  to  betray  zeal  than  knowl- 
edge ;  they  certainly  do  show  that  they  have  miscon- 
ceived the  idea  of  reform  in  any  true  and  proper  sense, 
and  are  vainly  seeking  for  something  else  which  they 
think  may  be  made  to  come  in  and  supply  its  legiti- 
mate place.  And  time  will  not  fail  both  to  disappoint 
and  undeceive  them. 

Our  Saviour  was  the  promulgator  of  a  Gospel  of 
Peace.  He  employed  no  force  whatever  in  his  endeav- 
ors to  reform  the  world,  because  he  did  not  aim  to 
bring  about  that  reformation  from  without,  but  alto- 
gether from  within.  We  remember  that  on  a  certain 
occasion  he  said  he  had  power  to  summon  a  legion  of 
angels  to  assist  him ;  but  he  did  no  such  thing.  He 
never  thought  to  overcome  violence  by  violence,  but  by 
love.  He  preached  only  "  peace  on  earth,  good  will 
towards  men."  His  wonderful  power  was  the  power  of 
Love,  not  of  Hate.  But  alas  !  where  stand  his  pro. 
fessed  followers  to-day  ?  What  has  become  of  the  faith 
of  that  minister  of  the  gospel  who  disobeys  the  com- 
mands of  the  blessed  Redeemer,  and,  disregarding  his 
example  of  love  and  gentleness,  as  well  as  his  plainest 
and  most  pointed  precepts,  demands  the  application  of 
10* 


114  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

a  revengeful  law  and  brute  force  itself  to  accomplish 
what  he  vainly  considers  will  be  the  moral  reform  of 
the  race  ?  Well  indeed  may  we  seriously  ask  one  an- 
other such  questions,  when  even  those  who  preach 
Christ  are  gone  frantic  to  seize  the  power  that,  in  their 
crazy  judgments,  shall  make  all  men  Christians,  wheth- 
er they  will  or  not. 

"  But,"  says  the  teetotal  preacher  and  lecturer, 
"  I  believe  in  moral  suasion  for  the  drinker,  but  legal 
suasion  for  the  seller  !  "  Is  that  so  ?  Then  see  here. 
By  your  own  statement  then,  sir,  if  you  first  go  to  work 
and  apply  proper  moral  suasion  to  the  consumer,  or 
drinker,  do  you  not  see  that,  with  only  limited  provis- 
ions, the  seller  will  need  no  reforming  ?  because,  by 
thus  decreasing  the  demand,  you  naturally  cut  off  the 
supply  ?  The  seller  will  come,  then,  at  last  to  have 
none  to  whom  to  sell ;  and  even  what  he  does  sell,  we 
insist,  as  we  have  in  previous  pages,  shall  be  none  but 
pure  and  unadulterated  spirits. 

Now,  we  ask  the  most  zealous  total  abstinent  man 
going,  to  ask  himself,  whom,  in  case  he  finds  he  has  been 
guilty  of  immorality,  he  would  prefer  for  his  judge  ? 
Into  whose  hands  would  he  soonest  intrust  the  power 
of  administering  the  punishment  ?  If  he  will  answer 
our  question  from  his  heart,  would  he  not  cry  out  even 
with  King  David,  — 

"  Let  us  fall  now  into  the  hands  of  THE  LORD  ;  (for 
his  mercies  are  great ;)  and  let  me  not  fall  into  the 
hand  of  man." 

That  day  was  indeed  a  dark  and  gloomy  one  for  the 


A   GOOD  TEXT.  115 

cause  of  true  temperance,  that  saw  the  introduction  of 
what  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Maine  Law  into  the  halls 
of  legislation.  For  on  that  day  the  whole  matter 
changed  front.  Its  friends  chose  new  weapons,  which, 
as  they  have  since  found  to  their  cost  and  sorrow,  can 
cut  in  more  than  one  direction.  Temperance  ceased 
then  to  be  a  Reform,  and  became  a  Warfare  ;  stirring 
up  communities,  hitherto  peaceful,  with  all  the  passions 
that  rage  among  open  enemies ;  distracting  churches, 
and  driving  out  the  spirit  of  love  from  the  same ;  even 
dividing  families,  and  setting  father  against  son,  and 
son  against  father. 

Like  the  old  Spanish  Inquisition,  this  new  Maine 
Law  institution  might  compel  men  to  be  moral  and 
decent  on  the  surface,  —  might  in  fact  make  them  ap- 
pear to  be  what  they  really  are  not ;  but  we  ask,  in  the 
name  of  Heaven,  is  this  the  first  great  object  and  aim  of 
society  ?  Is  it  for  so  mean  a  purpose  as  this  that  we 
consent  to  select  men  to  make  our  statutes  ?  Do  we 
agree  that  the  highest  and  noblest,  the  first  and  the  last, 
object  of  society  is  to  appear  clean  and  white  on  the 
outside,  —  like  the  platter  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment,—  while  all  within  is  foulness  and  corruption? 
Nay,  we  tell  the  advocates  of  this  Inquisition  plan  that 
force  never  did  and  never  will  reform  any  person  liv- 
ing ;  he  may  profess  to  be  reformed,  and  his  friends 
may  profess  it  all  over  for  him  again  ;  but  the  work 
never  has  been  done,  because  it  cannot  thus  be  per- 
formed. A  man  must  first  be  convinced  of  error  from 
within ;  no  conversion  can  begin  until  this  quickening 
process  has  begun  beforehand. 


116  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

Understand,  —  we  object  in  no  possible  way  to 
any  individual's  abstaining  from  the  use  of  spirituous 
liquors,  even  for  medicinal  purposes,  if  so  it  appears 
right  and  proper  to  that  individual.  Let  that  be  his 
own  affair,  and  be  suffered  to  rest  entirely  with  himself. 
We  believe  for  ourselves,  however,  that  History,  the 
Bible,  and  Common  Sense,  all  three  allow  and  approve 
the  moderate  and  proper  use  of  good  wines  and  spirits, 
on  the  part  of  those  who  choose  so  to  use  them.  And 
we  would  only  repeat,  for  the  benefit  solely  of  Moham- 
medans, Rechabites,  or  disciples  of  Dr.  Alcott,  the  gen- 
tle and  beautiful  words  with  which  the  present  chapter 
opened  —  "  As  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you, 
do  ye  also  to  them  likewise." 


OUE  BEST  INTELLECTS.  117 


XVII. 

OUR  BEST  INTELLECTS. 

WE  gave  a  few  instances,  some  chapters  back,  of  the 
use  of  liquor  by  men,  who,  prohibitionists  are  kindly 
wont  to  think,  never  use  it  at  all,  and  add  to  that  list  the 
name  of  still  another  —  no  less  than  the  distinguished 
historian,  Prescott.  We  do  this  from  none  but  the 
best  intentions,  and  in  no  sense  from  a  spirit  of  boast- 
ing or  brag.  Such  a  spirit,  in  truth,  is  the  very  one 
with  which  we  feel  ourselves  chiefly  forced  to  contend, 
in  the  discussion  of  this  entire  subject. 

It  is  so  true  that  our  greatest  scholars  and  men  of 
intellect  are  in  the  custom  of  taking  a  glass  of  wine, 
or  spirits,  whenever  their  physical  resources  show  symp- 
toms of  failing  them,  or  for  the  sake  of  cheering  them 
under  the  burden  of  exhausting  labors  and  protracted 
exertions.  Such  men  feel  that  they  require  the  aid  of 
stimulus  to  recruit  the  powers  that  are  tasked  with 
such  severity.  And  they  use  it  accordingly.  It  is 
their  own  affair,  and  they  make  it  that,  and  nothing 
more. 

But  such  a  state  of  bigotry  exists  at  the  present  time 
in  the  community,  or  has  existed  until  now,  regarding 
the  subject  of  using  wine  as  a  beverage  at  all,  that  even 
these  first  and  best  men  have  been  forced  to  practise 


118  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

unworthy  shifts  —  some  of  them  —  to  conceal  the  habit, 
lest  their  very  names  might  be  dragged  forth  into  the 
columns  of  violent  and  virulent  newspapers,  there  to 
be  held  up  for  public  scorn  and  detestation.  And  by 
means  like  this,  the  friends  and  advocates  of  a  Maine 
Law  have  flattered  themselves  they  could  work  out  the 
knotty  and  intricate  problem  of  moral  reform. 

So  secret,  we  repeat,  have  been  the  practices  of  our 
intellectual  men  in  using  liquors  of  one  sort  and 
another,  that  it  would  even  be  thought  libellous  by 
many  to  charge  them  with  the  use  of  them  at  all ;  in 
other  words,  nobody  would  say  he  believed  you,  if  you 
should  tell  him  that  any  living  man  of  eminence  and 
excellent  moral  character  is  a  moderate  drinker.  Yet 
when  these  same  men  of  distinction  come  to  die,  the 
pen  that  records  their  virtues  loves  also  to  dwell  upon 
their  social  habits ;  and  it  is  then  that  even  the  bigots 
will  bear  to  read  of  their  proper  and  daily  use  of  liquor. 

In  another  place  we  have  referred  to  David  and  Sol- 
omon, and  other  great  men  of  the  ancient  times  ;  in 
this  place  we  may  allow  ourselves  to  speak  of  the  illus- 
trious dead  of  our  own  time.  We  alluded  to  the  his- 
torian Prescott.  Such  a  man,  of  all  other  men,  thus 
tasking  mind  and  body  together,  and  giving  his  days 
and  years  entirely  to  the  service  of  the  world,  requires 
the  constant  stimulus  which  is  only  to  be  found  in  gen- 
erous and  abundant  diet.  Bloodless  men  make  but 
indifferent  writers,  and  challenge  in  but  a  slight  de- 
gree the  sympathies  of  the  race.  What  they  want  to 
operate  with  is  rich  and  healthy  blood,  and  enough  of 


OUR  BEST  INTELLECTS.  119 

it ;  and  this  is  not  to  be  got  from  eating  bran  or  drink- 
ing cold  slops.  It  stands  both  to  reason  and  to  nature, 
that  as  we  use  our  bodies,  so  will  our  bodies  make  re- 
turn to  us.  If  we  starve  them,  we  must  expect  them 
to  contain  miserable  tenants  in  the  way  of  souls.  If 
we  pinch,  and  stint,  and  cramp,  and  dwarf,  and  mor- 
tify them,  they  will  be  very  sure  to  pay  it  all  back  to 
us  again,  with  interest  added.  Nature  will  certainly 
have  her  revenge.  She  utterly  refuses  to  be  cheated 
out  of  what  belongs  to  her.  We  cannot  expect  long  to 
draw  for  rich  and  plentiful  stores  upon  that  mysterious 
workman,  the  brain,  and  yet  not  give  back  that  same 
wonderful  and  generous  brain  something  in  return. 
Give  and  take,  is  the  law  in  this  as  in  other  matters. 
It  is  on  exactly  the  same  simple  principle  on  which  the 
farmer  goes  to  work  to  get  a  crop  off  his  land ;  he  soon 
learns  for  himself  that  the  better  he  treats  his  land,  the 
better  his  land  treats  him.  And  that  is  the  law  every 
where. 

There  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the  New  York 
Tribune,  not  long  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Prescott,  a  long 
and  interesting  memorial  of  the  man  from  the  pen  of 
his  former  private  secretary,  Mr.  Robert  Carter, — 
himself  at  the  time  a  Washington  correspondent  of  the 
Tribune.  It  related  to  Mr.  Prescott's  private  life  and 
habits,  and  was  in  all  respects  one  of  the  most  thor- 
oughly interesting  accounts  that  were  written  of  the 
lamented  historian.  In  the  course  of  that  memorial 
occurs  the  following  passage  respecting  the  use  Mr. 
Prescott  made  of  wine  and  cigars :  — 


120  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

"  Mr.  Prescott  usually  worked  hard  at  Nahant,  the 
air  of  which  refreshed  and  exhilarated  him.  He  was 
now  going  to  begin  his  history  of  Philip  II.  '  Let 
us  begin  with  Robertson,'  said  he.  I  took  down  the 
first  volume  of  the  History  of  Charles  V.,  the  father  of 
Philip,  and  read  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  till  dinner 
time.  He  invited  me  to  dine  with  him,  to  test,  as  he 
laughingly  said,  the  extent  and  completeness  of  Na- 
than's arrangements,  for  whose  skill,  as  a  major  domo, 
I  had  expressed  some  admiration.  Nothing  was  want- 
ing. The  dinner  was  perfectly  served.  He  drank,  as 
usual,  two  moderate  glasses  of  sherry,  and  then  said 
that  in  honor  of  Nahant  he  would  indulge  in  a  glass  of 
champagne.  He  remarked  that  in  the  damp  atmos- 
phere of  Nahant,  as  that  of  England,  he  could  drink 
twice  the  same  quantity  of  wine,  without  injury,  that 
he  could  in  the  dry  interior  of  our  country.  He  sat 
long  at  the  table,  eating  very  moderately,  and  chatting 
and  joking  with  his  invincible  cheerfulness,  exerting 
himself  to  induce  every  one  present  to  take  a  due  share 
in  the  conversation.  He  was  a  good  listener,  and  had 
much  tact  in  leading  those  around  him  to  talk,  inva- 
riably paying  the  most  patient  attention  to  whatever 
was  said,  skilfully  avoiding  disputation,  though  he  was 
remarkably  fond  of  good-natured,  animated  discussion. 
When  the  ladies  withdrew,  we  lighted  our  cigars,  of 
which  he  gave  me  a  handful,  saying  I  should  probabfy 
not  find  any  so  good  at  the  hotel,  and  we  adjourned  to 
the  veranda,  where  he  walked  about  for  some  time, 
talking  of  Nahant,  pointing  out  to  me  the  peculiarities 


OUR  BEST  INTELLECTS.  121 

of  the  scenery,  and  dwelling  with  interest  on  the  par- 
ticulars of  a  dreadful  shipwreck  which  had  taken  place 
on  a  reef  that  lay  almost  beneath  the  windows  of  his 
house.  By  the  time  his  single  cigar  was  smoked,  his 
hour  for  exercise  had  arrived,  and  I  left  him." 

Now,  what,  we  would  ask  the  most  strenuous  pro- 
hibitionist and  teetotaler,  is  there  wrong  in  all  this  ? 
What  harm  is  there  done  ?  Who  is  injured  ?  On  the 
contrary,  who  is  not  benefited  by  the  continued  ruddy 
health  of  the  hard-working  historian  ?  Ah,  but  it  is 
setting  such  an  evil  example  !  whines  some  one.  Prove 
that  what  you  say  is  true,  sir.  Who  says  it  is  an  evil 
example  ?  What !  an  example  of  cheerfulness,  of  tem- 
perance, of  perfect  self-poise  and  self-restraint,  to  be 
called  an  evil  example  ?  Forbid  it,  common  sense ! 
Forbid  it,  reason  !  If  this  be  evil  example,  then  have 
our  morals  gone  up  to  a  most  unsupportable  pitch  in- 
deed. We  fear  they  will  soon  be  out  of  the  reach  of 
people  altogether.  It  is  the  cynic  and  meddler  that  talks 
about  evil  examples,  and  calls  every  thing  such  that 
does  not  follow  his  own  directions,  and  do  exactly  as 
he  does.  What  does  he  know  of  evil  examples,  being 
himself  one  of  the  last  who  is  able  to  see  the  effect  pro- 
duced by  his  own  case  ? 

If  we  should  be  at  pains  to  look,  we  should  find  that 
all  our  men  of  note  and  mark  —  the  men  who  do  the 
hard  work,  and  great  work  for  the  generations  —  are 
obliged  to  have  regular  recourse  to  the  stimulus  fur- 
nished by  wine  and  liquor,  and  that  the  result  amply 
justifies  the  practice.  There  is  a  fixed  principle  about 
11 


122  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

the  matter,  which,  sooner  or  later,  they  find  they  are 
obliged  to  obey.  And  obey  they  do.  They  find  they 
cannot  task  their  best  powers  without  humoring  those 
powers  in  return.  They  require  recreation,  cheerful- 
ness, sociability,  stimulus,  as  much  as  other  men,  and 
even  more ;  and  an  examination  into  their  personal 
habits,  if  proper  and  allowable,  would  not  fail  to  dis- 
close just  such  practices  in  abundance  as  are  brought 
to  the  light  by  the  narrative  of  the  secretary  of  Mr. 
Prescott. 

This  matter  of  food  and  drink,  too,  is  not  so  clearly 
established  as  these  sciolists  in  morals  would  have  us 
suppose.  You  cannot  draw  such  a  straight  line  for 
every  one  between  what  is  good  for  him  and  what  is 
not  good  for  him,  as  you  think  for.  What  feeds  one 
man  poisons  another.  All  temperaments  are  not  alike ; 
and  all  digestive  apparatuses  are  not  made  on  exactly 
the  same  principle.  A  series  of  papers  has  recently 
been  published  in  Blackwood's  Magazine  on  this  im- 
portant subject,  that  deserve  general  perusal.  They 
stoutly  controvert  certain  favorite  theories  of  chemists 
in  regard  to  articles  of  food  and  drink,  as  well  as  all 
other  special  theories,  in  fact,  concerning  what  should, 
or  what  should  not,  be  eaten  or  drunk  by  mankind. 
According  to  the  writer,  chemistry  may  determine  the 
precise  nature  of  whatever  men  consume  as  food  ;  but 
it  can  never  fix  any  laws  by  which  to  determine  the 
amount  or  kind  of  food  best  adapted  for  human  suste- 
nance, because  the  influences  which  operate  upon  food 
in  the  human  system  are  beyond  the  reach  of  chemistry. 


OUR  BEST  INTELLECTS.  123 

These  influences  are  also  so  various  in  different  indi- 
viduals, and  in  the  same  individuals  at  different  periods 
of  life,  that  no  specific  rules  can,  it  is  argued,  ever  be 
laid  down  by  the  physiologist  for  general  guidance. 

Alimentary  substances,  it  is  further  observed,  are 
substances  which  serve  as  nourishment ;  but  a  great 
mistake  is  made  when  it  is  imagined  that  their  nutri- 
tive value  can  chiefly  reside  in  the  amounts  of  carbon, 
nitrogen,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  and  salts,  which  they  con- 
tain ;  it  resides  in  the  relation  which  the  several  sub- 
stances bear  to  the  organism  they  are  to  nourish.  The 
substance  which  nourishes  one  animal  affords  no  nour- 
ishment to  another,  nor  can  any  table  of  nutritive 
equivalent,  however  precise,  prove  that  a  substance 
ought  to  nourish  in  virtue  of  its  composition,  when  ex- 
perience shows  that  it  does  not  nourish,  in  virtue  of 
some  defective  relation  between  it  and  the  organism. 

This  is  worth  remembering.  It  contains  matter 
enough  to  overthrow  all  these  patent  processes  of  mak- 
ing men  moral  and  temperate  by  telling  them  what 
they  shall  eat  and  what  they  shall  not  eat,  what  they 
shall  drink  and  what  they  shall  not  drink.  It  only 
goes  to  prove  that  Nature  forever  keeps  her  own  se- 
crets, and  that  we  cannot  hope  to  coop  her  up  within 
any  of  the  restrictions  and  hedge-fences  of  our  meddle- 
some little  laws.  Let  little  legislators  take  a  hint  from 
the  same,  and  bid  adieu  to  their  officiousness  without 
ay  more  words. 


124  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 


XVIII. 

PROHIBITION   BITTERS. 

THE  time  was,  —  and  not  very  long  ago,  either,  — 
when  it  was  thought  by  very  clever  and  respectable  peo- 
ple that  he  who  was  licensed  to  sell  liquor  for  medicinal 
and  mechanical  purposes  only,  would  of  course  offer 
the  community  nothing  but  the  very  best  quality  of 
spirits,  and  sell  them,  too,  to  none  but  that  class  whose 
character  was  a  guarantee  that  it  would  be  put  to  a 
proper  use.  Those  were  innocent  days,  even  like  those 
in  which  the  pastoral  poets  lived,  and  piped  their  soft 
lays  to  delighted  lambs  and  ladies.  But,  unfortunate- 
ly, these  present  times  are  not  those  times.  There  is, 
in  fact,  no  resemblance  between  them. 

For  just  listen  to  what  our  honest  friend  Josh  has  to 
say  on  this  matter  of  prohibition  rum.  He  has  had  an 
experience  with  it,  and  knows  very  well  what  he  is 
talking  about.  Josh  tells  us  in  all  candor,  and  with  a 
horribly  distorted  countenance  while  he  gives  up  his 
story,  that  whenever  he  is  forced  to  make  up  his  mind 
to  "  smile  "  on  prohibition  rum,  the  taste  is  as  that  of 
antiquated  eggs,  and  the  fragrance  rises  like  the  fra- 
grance of  a  downright  "  hen  fever  "  !  As  Josh  speaks 
so  entirely  from  experience,  we  are  not  the  individuals 
to  call  his  statement  in  question.  He  declares,  with 


PROHIBITION  BITTERS.  125 

lamentations  upon  his  tongue,  that  you  can  place  no 
earthly  reliance  upon  temperance  bitters ;  and  that,  in 
fact,  you  had  better  make  up  your  mind  not  to  touch 
them  at  all,  unless,  as  is  now  and  then  the  actual  case, 
a  man  is  an  open  enemy  to  the  peace  of  his  own 
bowels ! 

This  relates,  however,  only  to  the  matter  of  quality ; 
in  point  of  quantity,  there  are  other  things  to  be  said. 
And  one  of  those  things  is  this  ;  that  whatever  restric- 
tions may  be  thrown  around  the  sale  of  liquors  by 
stringent  prohibitory  laws,  declaring  that  only  so  much 
shall  be  sold  to  this  man,  and  only  so  much  to  that 
man,  and  for  a  specific  purpose  in  each  instance, — 
money  will  nevertheless  buy  all  that  is  wanted  of  these 
agents,  as  a  general  thing.  It  is  even  so.  There  are 
people  enough  who,  if  they  chose,  could  come  forward 
and  verify  this  statement.  We  know  of  more  than  in- 
stances enough  ourselves  to  permit  us  to  put  forth  the 
statement  in  the  form  we  have. 

A  noted  temperance  lecturer,  not  long  ago,  told  a 
little  anecdote  like  the  following :  "  A  young  lad, 
named  Billy,  once  called  at  the  store  of  a  temperance 
liquor  agent,  and  asked  for  a  quart  of  rum.  Says  the 
agent  to  the  little  fellow,  <  This  is  for  sickness  in  the 
family,  isn't  it,  Billy  ?'  <  0,  no,  sir,'  answered  the  boy, 
in  all  honesty  and  truth  ;  '  but  old  Uncle  Toby  is  over 
to  our  house,  and  he's  —  he's  —  makin'  an  ox-yoke,  — 
and  —  and '  — '  Well,  well ;  never  mind  about  the  rest, 
Billy,'  spoke  up  the  faithful  and  far-seeing  agent ;  '  it's 
for  mechanical  purposes,  my  little  fellow !  All  the 
11* 


126  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

same,  exactly ! '  And  of  course  lie  let  the  boy  have  the 
rum.  For  do  you  suppose  that  such  an  agent  as  that 
couldn't  see  the  value  of  liquor  in  works  of  a  mechan- 
ical nature,  —  like  the  bending  of  an  ox-bow  ?  "  Now, 
without  doubt,  that  individual  was  himself  interested 
in  making  the  profits  ;  either  altogether  to  himself,  or 
else  by  watering  his  liquor  and  so  saving1  the  profit, 
which  is  quite  as  short  and  easy  a  way  as  earning  it. 
At  all  events,  he  showed  himself,  as  a  public  agent, 
quite  willing  to  sell. 

The  very  same  men,  too,  that  seek  to  place  the  sale 
of  liquor  in  such  hands  exclusively,  will  go  to  work,  — 
for  a  great  many  of  them  have  been  guilty  of  doing 
such  wicked  things,  —  and  cut  down  handsome  apple 
orchards,  just  to  show  more  plainly  the  extent  of  their 
fanaticism.  Such  conduct  is  always  the  characteristic 
of  insane  persons,  and  proves  conclusively  of  itself  that 
to  them  should  never  be  intrusted  the  making  of  our 
laws.  If  they  cannot  have  a  better  care  for  their  own 
property,  they  are  manifestly  not  the  ones  with  whom 
to  intrust  the  property,  much  less  the  morals,  of  others. 

Cut  down  an  orchard  with  the  hope  of  preventing 
drunkenness  !  It  is  preposterous  ;  nay,  it  is  too  child- 
ish to  rise  to  an  act  such  as  reasonable  men  would  like 
to  visit  with  their  hearty  and  outspoken  contempt.  It 
can  be  compared  to  nothing  but  the  folly  of  wrong- 
headed  boys,  who,  because  they  stub  their  toes  while 
they  are  at  play,  let  off  their  passionate  irritation  by 
dashing  their  playthings  upon  the  ground, — as  if  the 
playthings  were  in  fault !  And  so  it  is  ;  the  small  boys 


PROHIBITION  BITTERS.  127 

in  this  way  make  work  for  the  industrious  toy-maker 
and  shopkeeper,  while  the  old  boys  make  work  for  the 
nurseryman  and  the  distiller.  The  small  boys  deserve 
to  be  soundly  whipped  and  put  to  bed,  and  the  old  boys 
to  be  shut  up  in  an  insane  asylum. 

But  since  the  days  of  liquor  agencies  set  in,  since 
the  reign  of  rumselling  for  medicinal  and  mechanical 
purposes  alone,  it  is  melancholy  to  think  of  the  count- 
less cases  of  sickness  that  have  been  brought  to  the 
light.  A  sicker  people,  as  a  general  tiling,  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  conceive  of.  And  yet  we  continue,  through 
the  whole  trial  of  such  a  chronic  sickness,  to  keep  up 
our  old  boasts  about  being  the  smartest  nation  under 
the  face  of  the  heavens,  and  capable  of  doing  the  most 
active  work  in  any  single  day  or  generation.  There  is, 
of  course,  no  inconsistency  in  it  all ;  nothing  more  than 
a  sickly  sort  of  pleasantry ;  nothing  worse  than  a  stale 
practical  joke.  We  could  be  sick  easily  enough,  —  that 
is,  about  sick  enough  for  purposes  of  agency  medicine  ; 
but  we  were  never  so  ill  as  to  forfeit  our  standing  as 
a  muscular,  vigorous,  highly  nervous,  and  excessively 
self-willed  people.  It  was  a  roguish  boy  who  wished  it 
would  rain  —  rain  hard  enough  to  keep  him  from 
going  to  school,  yet  not  so  hard  but  that  he  might  go  a 
fishing ;  and  we  think  the  advocates  and  patrons  of  the 
liquor  agency  system  are  in  about  the  same  ridiculous 
position  ;  they  are  not  really  sick,  that  is,  not  sick 
enough  to  be  laid  up,  —  yet  they  are  just  about  sick 
enough  to  want  to  take  agency  medicine  !  That  is  the 
way  it  stands. 


128  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

And  tinder  this  most  plausible  guise  of  taking  pre- 
scriptions, generally  ordered  by  their  own  inclinations 
rather  than  by  regular  physicians,  a  vast  deal  of  rum 
has  been  drunk  within  the  past  few  years,  and  very 
poor  rum  —  the  most  of  it  —  at  that.  Thousands  have 
been  ailing  and  complaining,  who  never  bestowed  a 
serious  thought  upon  their  health  before ;  and  many 
of  those  thousands  who  have  not  become  regular  tip- 
plers by  the  means,  have  become  what  is  almost,  if  not 
quite,  as  bad,  confirmed  hypochondriacs.  Considered 
firstly  as  a  domestic,  and  next  as  a  social  evil,  this 
really  amounts  to  a  great  deal  more  than  appears  on 
the  face  of  it.  A  race  of  whining,  complaining,  ever- 
lastingly sick  men  and  women,  drones  and  dumps,  and 
made  so  through  the  natural  operations  of  certain  laws 
that  interfere  with  private  and  personal  habits,  it  is  not 
very  desirable  to  contemplate  ;  and  certainly  it  will  not 
be  claimed  by  any  one  who  possesses  a  healthy  liver 
and  tolerably  sound  digestion,  that  such  a  generation 
would  either  do  credit  to  the  great  and  high-sounding 
pretensions  they  put  forth,  or  in  fact  be  of  much  service 
to  the  earth  they  only  cumber. 

But  the  main  feature  of  the  case  is,  the  wretched 
stuff  that  we  find  generally  sold  at  these  agencies  as  a 
pure  article  of  liquor.  Any  almost  indifferent  judge 
of  liquors  will  tell  you,  on  testing  and  tasting  these 
assortments,  that  they  are  at  best  but  poor  stuff,  and 
in  very  rare  instances  worth  any  thing  like  the  money 
that  is  asked  for  them  4  that  they  are  great  cheats,  per- 
fect frauds,  as  decided  and  as  wicked  impostures  as  any 


PROHIBITION   BITTERS.  129 

that  were  ever  practised  under  the  odious  free  grog- 
shop system  itself.  Witness  the  numerous  instances 
where  agents  in  the  interior  have  returned  their  sup- 
plies to  the  State  general  agent,  with  complaints  of 
inability  to  sell  because  of  their  manifest  impurity  and 
inferiority.  And  how  many  men,  themselves  fair 
judges  of  good  liquors,  absolutely  make  wry  faces  as 
they  choke  down  the  doses  they  have  purchased  at 
these  agencies  under  the  name  and  title  of  a  pure  arti- 
cle !  How  many  have  again  and  again  been  driven  to 
profanity,  on  tasting  brandy  for  which  they  paid  at  the 
agency  at  the  rate  of  seven  and  eight  dollars  per  gallon, 
when  they  knew  without  further  telling  that  it  was 
originally  cooked  up  into  its  present  market  shape  at  a 
cost  of  not  more  than  one  dollar  and  a  half! 

It  is  idle  to  seek  to  execute  laws  by  lies  and  frauds 
of  this  character.  The  law,  being  in  the  first  place 
offensive  and  tyrannical  because  of  its  sumptuary  char- 
acter, is  bad  enough  as  it  stands  ;  but  when  to  the  law 
itself  is  superadded  the  deceitful  manner  of  carrying 
it  out,  is  it  not  asking  rather  too  much  of  an  intelli- 
gent community,  quite  capable  of  self-restraint,  to 
solicit  its  aid  and  countenance  in  the  execution  of  such 
a  statute  in  such  a  way  ?  We  seriously  submit  that  it 
is.  Human  nature  will  put  up  with  almost  every  thing 
but  hypocrisy  in  those  who  assume  to  instruct  them 
according  to  the  principles  of  purity  and  truth. 


130  THE  EAMROD   BROKEN. 


XIX. 

JOHN  H.  W.  HAWKINS. 

THIS  well-known  and  recently  deceased  preacher  of 
total  abstinence  did  a  glorious  thing  for  himself,  and  set 
up  a  noble  example  for  others,  when  he  came  out  from 
the  great  army  of  the  gutter  drunkards  of  his  time, 
and  became  a  sober,  respectable  man.  It  was  a  high 
step  for  Mr.  Hawkins,  for  which  he  both  deserved  and 
received  the  applause  of  all  sober  and  good  persons. 
And  the  use  to  which  he  at  once  began  to  put  the  tal- 
ents he  had  rescued  from  the  depths  of  degradation, 
only  placed  him  still  higher  in  the  esteem  of  those 
whose  respect  is  a  part  of  the  great  rewards  of  life. 

After  his  striking  reformation,  after  he  thus  came 
up  out  of  the  mire  and  filth  of  drunkenness,  in  which, 
by  his  own  confession,  he  had  been  so  long  wallowing, 
he  went  forward  in  a  generous  spirit,  and  began  to 
exert  a  powerful  influence  in  securing  the  reform  of 
other  inebriates  also.  As  long  as  he  kept  up  his  bold, 
passionate,  and  eloquent  appeals  to  the  drunkard's 
manhood,  the  good  work  of  conversion  from  degrada- 
tion went  on  with  the  hearty  God-speed  of  almost  every 
sober  and  intelligent  person  in  the  community ;  but 
when  he  was  at  length  prevailed  upon  by  interested 
parties,  who  had  wires  and  secret  strings  of  their  own 


JOHN  H.   W.   HAWKINS.  131 

to  pull,  to  advocate  the  substitution  of  legal  authority 
for  moral  suasion,  from  that  unfortunate  day  his  influ- 
ence for  good  over  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  drunkard 
was  gone  forever. 

The ."  Life  of  Hawkins  "  has  recently  been  laid  before 
the  public,  compiled  at  the  hands  of  his  son ;  and  in 
that  volume  we  find,  on  cursorily  running  it  through, 
the  following  account  of  the  power  of  moral  suasion,  in 
a  case  that  occurred  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island.  It  is 
extracted  from  a  letter  written  from  that  place  to  the 
secretary  of  the  American  Temperance  Union  by  Ed- 
ward W.  Lawton,  Esq.,  a  "  dear  friend  of  Mr.  Haw- 
kins." The  letter,  which  is  dated  Newport,  January 
8th,  1842,  says,— 

"  On  the  3d,  Mr.  Hawkins  arrived  here  in  the  evening, 
and  commenced  lecturing  in  little  more  than  an  hour 
after,  and  from  that  time  until  this  morning  it  has 
been  a  perfect  jubilee.  The  whole  public  mind  has 
been  engrossed  and  absorbed  by  this  one  question. 
Immense  meetings  every  evening,  and  continual  visits 
through  the  day;  constant  applications  to  sign  the 
pledge  left  the  friends  of  the  cause  but  little  time  to 
spare  for  other  avocations.  Mr.  Hawkins  several  times 
expressed  the  opinion  that  it  exceeded  any  movement 
he  had  yet  seen,  even  that  of  the  celebrated  reforma- 
tion in  Springfield,  Massachusetts.  Our  pledge  roll 
now  numbers  upwards  of  two  thousand  five  hundred, 
many  of  whom  were  drunkards,  or  hard  drinkers,  not 
one  of  whom  has  yet  broken  his  pledge.  Rumsellers 
in  all  directions  are  giving'  up  their  business  !  Several 


132  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

bars  have  been  taken  down  this  day,  since  Mr.  Hawkins 
went  away.  Townsend's  Coffee-house,  (so  miscalled,) 
that  has  been  a  great  drinking-house  for  nearly  a  cen- 
tury, this  evening  closed  its  bar  ;  several  have  thrown 
their  liquors  into  the  street;  some  into  the  back  yards. 
I  called  on  one  man  to-day,  who  had  signed  the  pledge, 
and  told  him  there  was  a  feeling  of  uneasiness  among 
the  friends  from  a  report  that  he  had  some  liquors  left. 
He  thanked  me  most  cordially,  and  said  if  he  had  been 
ahvays  thus  kindly  treated,  he  should  have  been  a  tem- 
perance man  two  years  sooner,  and  added,  '  What 
shall  I  do  ?  I  have  but  one  cask,  and  that  I  have  de- 
termined not  to  sell.'  I  replied  that  if  he  would  throw 
it  away,  he  would  get  rid  of  the  poison  and  the  impu- 
tation both  together.  He  said  immediately  if  I  would 
help  him  to  get  it  out,  it  should  go.  It  was  accord- 
ingly set  to  running  in  the  back  yard  ;  his  family  lived 
in  the  same  house,  and  his  children,  discovering  what 
was  doing,  came  out  and  danced  round  it  for  joy. 
Believe  me,  sir,  I  do  not  state  this  circumstance  to  cel- 
ebrate my  own  part  in  it,  but  only  to  add  my  testimony 
to  many  others  as  to  the  efficacy  of  kindness  in  con- 
ducting this  enterprise.  It  has  been  a  general  feeling 
among  us,  and  has  evidently  been  productive  of  the 
best  results  ;  under  its  influence  the  utmost  unanimity 
has  prevailed  among  us,  '  the  eye  has  been  single,  (to 
the  object,)  and  the  whole  body  (seemingly)  full  of 
light.'  I  would  not  be  understood  as  taking  any  credit 
to  ourselves  in  this  matter  ;  the  hand  of  God  is  evidently 
in  it,  and  if  his  servants  are  but  faithful,  it  will  prosper 


JOHN   H.    W.    HAWKINS.  133 

to  their  everlasting  benefit.  Mr.  Hawkins,  during  the 
few  days  he  staid  among  us,  got  a  strong  and  most 
affectionate  hold  upon  our  feelings,  and  I  trust  we  have 
imparted  something  of  the  same  to  him." 

To  show  still  further  the  good  effects  of  moral  sua- 
sion, of  argument,  and  reason,  a  tract  that  appeared  in 
Boston  about  the  first  of  January  in  the  same  year, 
(1842,)  entitled  "  The  New  Impulse ;  or,  Hawkins 
and  Reform,"  sums  up  the  results  of  Mr.  Hawkins's 
moral  suasion  labors  to  that  date,  as  follows :  — 

"  The  whole  number  who  have  signed  the  pledge 
and  joined  the  Washington  Total  Abstinence  Societies 
in  the  principal  cities,  and  in  various  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, is  surprisingly  great ;  the  exact  number  cannot 
be  ascertained,  but  is  estimated  in  round  numbers,  by 
those  best  acquainted  with  the  facts,  to  be  —  in  Balti- 
more, about  12,000  ;  New  York,  10,000  ;  Boston,  5000  ; 
all  other  places  in  New  England,  73,000  ;  other  North- 
ern States,  100,000  ;  — total,  200,000.  A  majority  of 
these  are  supposed  to  have  been  hard  drinkers,  and  a 
large  proportion  hardened  drunkards ;  all  reformed 
from  the  example  and  exertions  of  one  man  !  " 

This  is  indeed  a  wonderful  statement  to  make,  yet 
we  see  no  good  reason  to  doubt  it  in  any  particular ; 
we  readily  accept  it  in  all  its  possible  bearings,  and 
hold  it  up  triumphantly  as  a  refutation,  thorough  and 
complete,  of  the  idea  that  men  are  no  longer  open  to 
reason  and  argument,  but  that  nothing  less  than  the 
force  of  law  will  reach  them.  If,  now,  the  appeals  of 
a  single  man  could,  in  so  short  a  time,  accomplish  the 
12 


134  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

rescue  —  even  though  temporary  in  many  cases  —  of 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  men,  what  a  grand  and 
almost  incalculable  result  might  not  be  expected  from 
all  the  united  and  harmonious  forces  of  society  in  the 
same  direction,  making  a  movement  that  was  inspired 
by  love  and  sympathy,  and  betraying  at  all  points  that 
feeling  of  fraternity,  as  well  as  charity,  which  testifies 
that  at  best  the  whole  world  is  kin ! 

Where,  throughout  the  whole  country,  we  ask,  has 
Law  done  a  work  to  be  compared  with  this  work  of 
Mr.  Hawkins  at  Newport  ?  Where,  and  when,  has  the 
Law  induced  a  rumseller  to  roll  out  his  casks  with  his 
own  hand,  and  empty  them  of  his  own  free  will  into 
the  public  streets  ?  Where,  on  the  contrary,  instead 
of  doing  any  sort  of  permanent  and  abiding  good,  has 
not  Law  at  all  times  done  evil  ?  We  all  know  from 
personal  observation  that  it  has  succeeded  in  dividing 
neighborhoods,  churches,  and  families.  It  has  engen- 
dered every  where  discord  instead  of  harmony,  and 
war  instead  of  peace.  It  lias  begotten  crimination  and 
recrimination.  It  has  caused  bloodshed  and  murder. 
Nay,  even  the  originator  of  the  Maine  Law  himself  has 
the  blood  of  a  fellow-mortal  on  his  hands,  shed  in  his 
attempt  to  defend  liquors  which  his  own  law  protected ! 
Property  has  been  destroyed  from  motives  of  the  mean- 
est conceivable  malice,  and  in  modes  the  most  dastardly 
and  aggravating.  Woman  has  been  led  to  unsex  her- 
self before  the  world,  and  head  vulgar  and  passion- 
fired  mobs  for  the  violent  destruction  of  the  product 
of  the  grape  and  the  apple.  Private  dwellings  them- 


JOHN   H.    W.    HAWKINS.  135 

selves  have  not  been  altogether  exempt  from  invasion. 
Horses  have  been  sheared  and  cruelly  hamstrung ; 
cattle  have  been  barbarously  mutilated  and  killed ; 
valuable  trees  have  been  girdled  and  ruthlessly  cut 
down  ;  houses  have  been  burned  by  the  torch  of  the 
infuriated  incendiary ;  the  worst  possible  blood  has 
been  aroused  in  all  quarters,  and  in  almost  every  lo- 
cality ;  and  civil  war  has  raged,  with  more  or  less 
violence,  all  over  the  land.  Because  a  law  that  ap- 
peals solely  to  force  is  sure  to  excite  force,  and  all  the 
mean  and  vicious  allies  of  force,  in  opposition  to  it,  to 
attempt  the  execution  of  a  law  of  such  a  character,  is 
only  to  challenge  and  defy  the  power  of  the  worst  pas- 
sions that  slumber  in  the  hidden  crater  of  human 
nature. 

For  what,  we  inquire,  was  the  cause  of  Temperance 
originally  dragged  into  politics,  when  reason  and  ap- 
peals to  common  sense  were  exercising  such  a  powerful 
influence  without  the  aid  of  law  ?  Alas,  there  was  a 
reason  for  the  movement,  and  it  was  a  purely  selfish 
one,  too.  It  was  because  some  few  men,  in  this  party, 
and  that  party,  had  got  an  idea  in  their  heads  that  some- 
thing was  to  be  made  by  it;  and,  in  fact,  because  they 
felt  that,  in  their  political  emergencies,  there  was  noth- 
ing to  be  made  in  any  other  way.  Not  only  these 
leaders,  but  the  temperance  lecturers,  including  Mr. 
Hawkins  himself,  were  convinced  that  only  by  the  new 
alliance  could  they  secure  their  living.  They  were  in 
the  condition  of  the  up-country  minister  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, of  whom  Daniel  Webster  used  to  tell  the  following 


136  THE  RAMROD    BROKEN. 

story  in  his  own  inimitable  way:  In  a  poor  town, 
situated  in  the  upper  corner  of  New  Hampshire,  where 
the  hard-working  people  raise  barely  enough  off  their 
farms  to  keep  soul  and  body  together  through  the  long 
winters,  they  had  a  custom  of  raising  by  subscription, 
every  autumn,  a  few  bushels  of  rye,  by  the  payment  of 
which  they  might  secure  regular  preaching  during  the 
next  winter.  A  committee  having  been  duly  appointed 
to  take  charge  of  the  business,  an  itinerant  preacher 
soon  presented  himself,  and  made  his  proposals  to  per- 
form the  required  amount  of  preaching  for  the  rye. 
He  gave  them  one  sermon  as  a  specimen  of  what  he 
could  do  for  them ;  and  after  the  discourse  the  com- 
mittee retired  to  deliberate  on  the  comparative  value 
of  the  rye  and  the  sermon.  They  happened  to  be  out 
rather  a  longer  time  than  usual  in  their  deliberations, 
and  the  preacher  began  to  grow  nervous  in  conse- 
quence. Finally  he  found  he  could  stand  it  no  longer ; 
and,  fearing  lest  they  might  conclude  to  report  ad- 
versely to  his  proposal,  he  bolted  straight  in  among 
them,  and  argued  his  case  for  himself.  "  Gentlemen," 
said  he,  in  a  fever  of  anxiety,  "  if  I  didn't  preach  to 
suit  you  that  time,  just  tell  me  how  I  shall  preach,  and 
I  will  be  certain  to  do  better  next  time  ;  for,  gentle- 
men, I  tell  you  I  must  have  the  rye  !  " 

And  it  has  been  about  so  with  the  temperance  lec- 
turers ;  they  have  changed  their  ground  because  they 
have  felt  just  as  the  itinerant  New  Hampshire  preacher 
did,  that  they  must  have  the  rye  !  Mr.  Hawkins  was 
only  a  poor  mechanic  previous  to  his  reform ;  he  found 


JOHN   H.    W.    HAWKINS.  137 

he  could  make  more  "  rye  "  by  speaking  than  by  work- 
ing at  his  trade,  and  therefore  he  was  willing  to  con- 
tinu£  in  his  new  calling,  even  though  it  took  him 
entirely  out  of  the  course  in  which  he  had  originally 
started.  This,  on  his  part,  was  only  his  blindness  and 
his  misfortune  ;  shrewder  men  were  determined  to  use 
his  talents  for  their  own  purposes,  as  instruments  with 
which  to  obtain  political  power.  They  made  him  their 
cat's-paw,  with  which  to  pull  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire. 
They  insisted  now  on  his  preaching  force  and  law ; 
and  force  and  law  he  was  compelled  to  preach,  because 
he  had  rather  take  their  "  rye  "  than  go  back  to  steady 
and  tasking  work  at  his  trade. 

We  once  heard  of  a  story  to  this  effect:  A  snarl 
of  farmer's  children  had  broken  a  lot  of  eggs,  and  the 
farmer  talked  it  up  seriously  with  their  mother  whether 
he  had  not  best  administer  a  severe  flogging  all  round. 
His  wife  pleaded  for  the  children,  as  most  mothers  are 
very  apt  to  do.  "  Don't  punish  them,"  said  she,  "  for 
they  are  little  creatures,  and  did  not  know  any  better." 
So  the  flogging  for  that  particular  offence  was  remitted. 
But  after  a  time  they  fell  into  other  mischief;  and  now 
the  resolute  farmer  was  bound  to  give  them  what  they 
deserved.  "  No,  no  !  "  the  young  rascals  cried  out  in 
concert,  remembering  too  well  the  effective  plea  that 
had  been  made  for  them  before  —  "  no,  no  !  we  are  only 
little  creatures  !  we  don't  know  any  better,  father  I " 
It  is  just  so  with  the  drunkards.  Treat  them  like  hu- 
man beings,  —  lay  their  sins  and  follies  at  their  own 
door,  —  make  them  responsible  for  their  own  acts, — 
12* 


138  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

and  it  is  possible  to  reform  them  ;  but  impiously  find 
fault  with  Heaven  for  permitting  the  beautiful  process 
of  fermentation  to  go  on,  —  blame  our  Saviour  for  hav- 
ing turned  water  into  wine,  —  blame  the  farmer  for 
raising  apples  and  grapes,  and  the  merchants  for  sell- 
ing their  juice,  —  and  drunkards  will  not  reform. 
They  will  cry  out  with  the  children,  —  "  We  are  only 
little  creatures !  we  don't  know  any  better ! "  The 
laws  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  allowed  drunkards  to  be 
stoned  to  death  ;  but  what  scriptural  law,  we  wish  to 
know,  forbids  a  man  to  sell  pure  and  unadulterated 
liquors  ?  Suppose  some  ardent  friend  of  prohibition, 
some  exceedingly  strait  ramrod  man,  undertakes  to 
answer  our  question. 


A   PEW  ANECDOTES.  139 


XX. 

A   FEW    ANECDOTES. 

A  GENTLEMAN  of  our  acquaintance  tells  us  a  story  of 
a  young  man  named  John,  who,  for  good  and  sufficient 
reasons,  saw  fit  to  join  a  temperance  society.  Not 
long  after  becoming  a  member,  John  rose  in  the  meet- 
ing and  delivered  himself  of  a  speech.  Said  he  to  his 
attentive  audience,  "  Henceforth  and  forever  I  am  a 
temperance  man,  for  I  have  been  nearly  ruined  by 
rum.  It  has  been  a  curse  to  me  from  the  beginning. 
It  has  made  a  beast  of  me.  Night  after  night  have  I 
suffered  disgrace  by  publicly  lying  drunk  in  the  ditch ; 
but  now,  thank  God !  I  am  a  free  man.  I  have  burst 
my  fetters  !  I  am  reformed!  "  And  so  on  in  the  same 
strain  to  any  extent.  John's  address  produced  an 
electric  effect  upon  his  listeners,  for  he  was  young  still, 
and  he  challenged  their  profoundest  sympathies.  It 
was  such  a  terrible  thing  to  think  of,  that  he,  so  good 
and  so  generous,  so  impulsive  and  so  noble,  should 
have  been  lying  upon  the  very  brink  of  the  great  pre- 
cipice, and  was  finally  plucked  from  the  destruction 
that  seemed  so  certain  for  him !  It  thrilled  his  audi- 
ence to  hear  that  he  had  been  snatched  from  ruin  in 
such  a  signal  manner.  They  saw,  too,  plainly,  that  the 
hand  of  Providence  was  in  it,  working  through  this 


140  THE   RAMROD    BROKEN. 

unfortunate  young  man  another  miracle.  And,  hav- 
ing thus  worked  up  their  feelings,  he  was  made  a  lion 
of  without  further  notice. 

When  he  went  home  to  his  mother  again,  she  had 
heard  of  the  wonderful  effect  produced  by  her  son 
John's  speech,  and  proceeded  to  put  him  a  few  ques- 
tions on  the  matter.  "  Now,  John,  my  son,"  said  she, 
in  all  possible  maternal  tenderness,  "  do  pray  tell  me 
ivhen  you  ever  got  drunk  as  you  said,  and  lay  helpless 
in  the  gutter  ?  I  am  sure  /  never  heard  of  it  before, 
and  it  surprised  me  greatly.  When  did  all  this  hap- 
pen ? "  "  Ah,  mother,"  answered  the  dutiful  son, 
"  don't  you  know  it's  not  a  word  of  it  true  ?  Don't 
you  understand  that  I  got  up  and  told  that  yarn  in  the 
meeting  just  for  effect  ?  The  rest  of  the  speakers  talk 
so,  and  I  had  to  do  the  same,  or  they  wouldn't  have 
listened  to  me  a  minute  !  That  was  the  reason,  moth- 
er. But  as  for  being  drunk  and  lying  in  the  ditch,  1 
never  did  such  a  thing  in  all  my  life  !  " 

Bum  has  a  great  many  things  to  answer  for,  which 
it  is  not  really  the  cause  of.  It  has  done  quite  harm 
and  mischief  enough,  from  its  adulteration  and  abuse, 
we  allow  ;  but  yet  it  is  not  right  to  saddle  it  with  a 
load  that  some  other  cause  ought  to  be  made  to  carry. 
If  a  man  insists  on  publicly  making  a  fool  of  himself,-— 
if  a  man  insults  and  so  loses  a  valued  friend,  —  if  he 
suffers  himself  to  be  led  away  into  the  commission  of  a 
crime  of  any  description,  —  the  fault  is  always  ascribed 
to  rum.  Of  course  rum  is  answerable  for  every  thing 
that  is  wicked  and  mean,  even  to  a  person's  natural 


A   FEW  ANECDOTES.  141 

shiftlessness,  and  lazy  and  improvident  habits.  If  an 
individual  fails  to  control  his  temper,  and  flies  in  a  pas- 
sion with  another,  he  is  generally  suspected  of,  if  not 
openly  charged  with,  having  been  drinking ;  whereas 
he  may  never  have  tasted  so  much  as  a  glass  of  wine 
in  all  his  life.  It  has  come  to  that  pass,  where,  if  a 
person  thus  unfortunate  will  only  consent  to  say  that 
he  was  excited  with  liquor,  he  is  readily  excused  ;  or, 
at  least,  his  offence  is  not  esteemed  of  that  magnitude 
which  it  would  otherwise  have  reached. 

Very  many  of  the  temperance  stories  that  are  nar- 
rated by  teetotal  lecturers  are  mere  fables,  and,  like 
our  friend  John's  story,  told  merely  for  the  effect  they 
are  expected  to  produce.  We  once  heard  a  story  of  a 
sailor's  falling  from  the  mast-head,  and  thus  meeting 
his  death.  His  body  dropped  overboard.  It  was  sub- 
sequently recovered,  and  deposited  for  a  brief  time  in 
a  warehouse  until  a  jury  of  inquest  could  be  summoned. 
While  lying  thus  exposed  in  the  warehouse,  the  weath- 
er being  very  cold,  the  body  froze  stiff,  and  the  rats  got 
at  it  besides,  mangling  it  somewhat  in  places.  The 
jury  of  inquest  proceeded  to  perform  the  duty  required 
of  them  on  the  next  day,  and,  after  a  long  and  patient 
examination  into  the  circumstances  attending  the  death 
of  the  poor  sailor,  finally  brought  in  the  following  lucid 
and  intelligent  verdict:  "  We  find,"  said  they,  "that 
he  fell  from  the  mast-head  and  was  killed  ;  he  then 
tumbled  overboard  and  was  drowned  ;  he  floated  ashore 
and  froze  to  death ;  and  finally,  the  rats  ate  him  up 
alive  ! " 


142  THE   EAMROD   BROKEN. 

It  is  about  so  with  the  multiplied  charges  that  are 
brought  against  rum.  Some  ass,  who  never  possessed 
brains  at  all,  perhaps  died  a  drunkard,  and  he  is 
straightway,  by  supposition,  made  a  saint  of.  0,  but 
if  it  had  not  been  for  rum,  he  might  have  been  such  a 
great  man,  such  a  wise  man,  such  a  wonderful  man ! 
He  had  a  brilliant  intellect,  they  say,  but  what  a  vast 
pity  that  rum  ruined  him  !  He  could  have  been  any 
thing,  and  done  any  thing  he  chose,  but  for  accursed 
rum!  That  destroyed  him,  and  the  bright  hopes  of 
his  friends  along  with  him  !  0,  if  only  this  rum  could 
be  banished  from  the  world,  then,  perhaps,  every  man 
of  bright  parts  might  shine  as  he  was  born  to  shine  ! 

Now,  after  all  is  said  and  done,  what  has  rum  really 
been  guilty  of  in  this  case  ?  Of  depriving  society  and 
his  family  of  a  man  of  high  promise  ?  Not  at  all ; 
farthest  from  that  possible.  But  this  fool's  lack  of 
brains,  and  consequent  failure  to  accomplish  any  thing 
in  life,  has  been  conveniently  laid  at  rum's  door.  It  is 
a  capital  scape-goat  to  bear  the  mortification  of  his 
friends  at  his  own  natural  lack  of  mother-wit.  It 
merely  causes,  in  this  instance,  a  mule  to  bray  a  little 
louder  than  he  would  if  he  had  fed  only  on  thistles  and 
water  ;  that  is  all.  But  what  a  fuss  about  a  fool ! 

We  once  heard,  or  read,  a  story  of  a  young  fellow,  a 
native  of  the  Green  Mountain  State,  who  returned 
home  among  his  relatives,  one  summer,  from  New  Or- 
leans. It  was  in  the  piping  times  when  the  prohibition 
scheme  first  laid  its  heavy  hand  on  all  social  arrange- 
ments, and  of  course  the  contrast  presented  to  his  mind 


A   FEW  ANECDOTES.  143 

between  the  style  of  things  in  the  gay  capital  of  the 
south-west  and  the  quiet  rural  districts  of  his  native 
state,  was  decidedly  striking  and  impressive.  To  come 
irom  New  Orleans  to  the  heart  of  Vermont  was  a 
change  indeed. 

The  young  man's  early  friends  and  relatives  were 
delighted  to  see  him,  wherever  he  went.  They  made 
it  a  particular  point  —  as  they  generally  do  in  all  the 
country  towns  of  New  England  —  to  treat  him  to  the 
best  the  land  afforded.  He  was  not  allowed  to  go  either 
hungry  or  thirsty  ;  there  was  hardly  an  hour  of  the 
day  when  his  digestive  apparatus  was  not  kept  in  in- 
dustrious operation.  He  arrived,  one  day,  at  the  house 
of  a  worthy  uncle,  a  diligent  farmer  and  a  most  excel- 
lent man,  whose  two  boys,  already  men  grown,  were 
quite  as  glad  to  see  their  stranger  cousin  as  their  father 
was.  The  boys'  names  were  James  and  Jirah.  It  was 
right  in  the  season  of  haying,  and  father  and  sons  were 
hard  at  it  every  day. 

The  forenoon  after  the  arrival  of  our  New  Orleans 
friend  at  their  house,  he  thought  he  would  prick  up 
and  take  a  stroll  in  the  hay-field,  where  his  uncle  and 
cousins  were  at  work.  As  we  remarked  previously,  it 
was  hot  and  high  temperance  times,  and  of  course 
nothing  in  the  way  of  stimulus  —  not  even  the  pure, 
old-fashioned  cider  brandy  was  to  be  had  for  love  or 
money.  Before  going  out  into  the  field,  however,  his 
thoughtful  aunt  took  him  aside  into  her  buttery,  and 
said,  "You  see,.  Tom,  we  have  to  keep  these  things 
very  private  up  here,  nowadays ;  I  s'pose  you  are  in 


144  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

the  habit  of  taking  c  a  little  something '  every  forenoon, 
down  in  New  Orleans,  and  I  thought  mebbe  you'd  like 
a  drop,  or  so,  before  you  went  into  the  field  !  There's 
some  gin  that  I  keep  for  my  own  private  use  ;  I  don't 
let  any  body  in  the  house  know  that  I've  got  any  such 
thing;  but  you're  welcome,  Tom;  help  yourself!" 
And  as  he  naturally  supposed  it  was  such  a  hard  mat- 
ter to  get  a  drink  up  in  Vermont,  and  that  he  would 
have  to  go  thirsty  for  the  rest  of  the  day,  he  did  help 
himself,  and  to  a  pretty  "  stiff  horn,"  too.  Wiping  his 
lips  with  great  satisfaction,  he  sallied  forth  in  improved 
spirits  in  quest  of  his  uncle  and  cousins  in  the  hay-field. 
He  found  them,  and  in  the  company  of  one  and  another 
the  time  wore  away  very  pleasantly. 

After  a  little  while,  happening  to  be  off  with  the  old 
man  alone,  said  the  latter  to  him,  "  Tom,  I  s'pose 
you're  used  to  taking  a  little  somethiri*  every  forenoon, 
out  where  you've  been  a-livin' ;  haven't  you?  Wai,  I've 
got  a  drop  or  two  of  right  good  gin  in  a  bottle  under 
the  wall,  yonder,  —  it's  right  where  my  jacket  lays,— 
and  if  you'll  go  out  there  sort  o'  carelessly  with  me, 
we'll  take  somethin' ;  but  I  have  to  keep  it  very  sly  ;  I 
don't  let  the  boys  know  any  thing  about  it !  So  keep  it 
to  yourself,  Tom,  will  you  ?  "  0,  yes  ;  he  would  cer. 
tainly  keep  it  to  himself;  he  would  never  tell  of  it  in 
the  world.  And  supposing  it  likely  that  this  was  the 
last  horn  he  would  get  that  forenoon,  he  took  as  stiff 
an  one  as  before,  if  not,  perhaps,  a  little  more  so  !  The 
result  was,  his  liquor  began  just  a  trifle  to  affect  him. 
Considering  that  the  day  was  warm,  he  was  growing  a 
little  mellow ! 


A   FEW   ANECDOTES.  145 

By  and  by,  Tom  got  round  to  that  part  of  the  field 
where  his  cousin  Jirah  was  tossing  and  turning  the 
wilted  grass  with  his  pitchfork.  "  I'll  tell  you  what  it 
is,  Tom,"  said  Jirah,  wiping  the  perspiration  from  his 
brow,  "  Pm  getting  pesky  dry.  I've  got  something  in 
a  little  flask  that  I  carry  in  my  pocket,  and  if  you'll  go 
with  me  sort  o'  slyly  round  to  the  spring,  just  over  in 
the  next  field,  I'll  give  you  something  that  you'll  call 
pretty  good.  Come  !  "  Tom  was  rather  delighted  than 
otherwise  with  his  prospects,  and  crept  round  to  the 
spring  with  his  cousin  Jirah,  where  he  took  yet  another 
substantial  horn.  This  made  three,  and  three  pretty 
stiff  ones,  all  of  them,  too  !  "  But,  by  the  way,"  whis- 
pered his  cousin,  before  they  left  the  spring,  "  I  keep 
all  this  from  the  old  man,  and  so  must  you  ;  don't  say 
any  thing  about  it,  nor  let  him  think  you've  had  such 
a  thing  as  a  drink  from  me  !  "  0,  no ;  Tom  knew 
enough  to  keep  a  secret,  and  he  guessed  he  could  keep 
this. 

When  noon  came,  his  younger  cousin,  Jim,  winked 
to  him,  as  they  reached  the  barn  on  the  way  home  to 
dinner,  to  follow  him  in.  Tom  mistrusted  there  was 
something  afoot,  and  proceeded  to  obey  the  sly  sugges- 
tion. "  I've  got  a  little  good  gin  here  under  the  hay," 
said  Jim,  after  he  felt  sure  they  were  safe  from  obser- 
vation, "  and  I  want  you  to  have  a  drink  before  you 
go  in  to  dinner  ;  but  you  mustn't  lisp  a  word  of  it  to 
old  folks,  —  no,  nor  to  my  brother  Jirah,  neither  ! 

lon't  let  him  know  any  thing  about  these  little  ar- 
rangements of  mine,  any  more  than  I  do  my  father. 
13 


146     *  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

Ah,  there's  the  little  treasure,  safe  and  sound  ! "  and, 
taking  it  up  and  shaking  it  well,  he  passed  it  over  to 
his  cousin  to  help  himself.  Tom  had  by  this  time  got 
so  in  the  habit  of  it,  that  he  could  not  well  forbear 
indulging  even  once  more  in  a  very  generous  pull ; 
and  he  instantly  acknowledged  the  virtue  of  the  arti- 
cle that  he  had  just  incorporated  with  his  system. 

Here  were  four  stout  drinks,  all  in  a  single  forenoon, 
and  all  obtained  on  the  sly,  and  from  the  several  mem- 
bers of  a  professedly  teetotal  family,  living  in  the  very 
focus  and  heart  of  a  total  abstinence  community  !  It 
was  a  grand  illustration  of  the  rank  hypocrisy  engen- 
dered of  the  rigid  law  of  prohibition  ;  making  men 
moral  and  abstemious  outwardly,  but  forcing  them  into 
the  most  despicable  practices  of  hypocrisy  in  secret. 

Our  friend  Tom  remarked,  —  and  rightly  enough, 
too,  we  think,  —  for  free  drinking  through  the  day,  old 
Vermont,  with  its  stringent  prohibition  law,  was  a  great 
deal  to  be  preferred  to  any  thing  he  ever  had  the  for- 
tune to  see  in  New  Orleans ! 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  STIMULANTS.  147 


XXL 

THE  NECESSITY   OF   STIMULANTS. 

So  loud  has  been  the  outcry  against  liquors  and  their 
use,  that  a  great  many,  if  not  the  majority,  of  persons 
have  succumbed  to  the  prevailing  prejudice J  and,  with- 
out pretending  to  understand  the  why  or  the  wherefore, 
have  really  believed  that  it  was  sinful  to  use  a  glass  of 
wine,  gin,  brandy,  or  any  other  sort  of  stimulus  in 
their  families.  This  curious  fact  does  but  show  how 
liable  the  best  intentioned  people  are  to  be  overborne 
in  their  own  sentiments,  and  with  what  servile  readi- 
ness they  give  in  to  the  loud  and  persistent  shouts  of 
those  not  one  half  as  competent  to  arrive  at  proper 
opinions  as  themselves. 

Now,  we  know  that,  to  some  persons,  stimulus  is 
absolutely  necessary ;  as  much  so  as  the  food  they  eat 
or  the  air  they  breathe.  The  great  business  of  life 
is  to  live ;  not  to  hurry  away  to  what  we  think  may 
offer  us  something  better  in  another  state  of  existence, 
but  to  stay  right  where  we  are,  and  get  the  greatest 
amount  of  good  possible  out  of  it.  In  a  normal,  that 
is,  natural  condition,  both  of  mind  and  body,  there  is  a 
perpetual  struggle  going  on  between  the  opposing  forces 
of  existence  and  decay  —  an  everlasting  resistance  on 
ae  part  of  the  individual  to  that  principle  which 


148  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

gradually  wears  him  away.  In  other  words,  to  employ 
the  language  of  a  well-known  chemist,  to  provide 
against  the  tendency  of  our  bodies  to  oxidation,  has 
required  all  the  time,  and  labor,  and  talent  of  a  very 
large  class  in  every  country  and  in  every  age. 

Now,  we  have  each  of  us  been  furnished  by  the 
Almighty  with  those  instincts  that  lead  us  to  seek  out 
those  articles  best  adapted  to  the  sustenance  and  pres- 
ervation of  our  bodies,  and  also  with  the  ingenuity  to 
make  those  articles  apply  to  our  actual  necessities. 
All  this,  as  we  can  see  for  ourselves,  is  God-given. 
And  the  leading  and  noticeable  fact  that  stands  out  in 
history  is  this,  —  that  all  nations,  whatever  the  state 
of  their  barbarism  or  civilization,  have  invariably  found 
out  for  themselves  some  substance  that  yields  them 
the  required  stimulant.  This  is  a  much  more  signifi- 
cant fact  than  is  generally  thought  of,  even  if  it  is 
thought  of  at  all.  Some  nations  have  employed  vege- 
table, and  some  animal  substances,  in  order  to  effect 
their  purpose.  It  is  supposed  that,  in  all,  a  list  of 
more  than  a  hundred  articles  could  be  named,  and 
generally  of  the  most  opposite  description,  out  of  which 
the  element  that  causes  intoxication  has  been  pro- 
duced. Now,  we  would  be  glad  to  have  some  one, 
who  is  not  himself  averse  to  reason  on  these  things, 
tell  us  how  and  why  it  is  that  the  instincts  of  the  en- 
tire race,  scattered  all  over  the  world,  and  antipodes  to 
one  another,  have  led  them,  first,  to  seek  such  a  sub- 
stance as  would  yield  for  them  the  intoxicating  ele- 
ment, and,  secondly,  to  apply  their  highest  ingenuity 


THE  NECESSITY   OF   STIMULANTS.  149 

to  the  production  of  that  element  in  order  to  subserve 
their  necessities.  There  certainly  can  be  no  witchcraft, 
or  magic,  in  it ;  it  must  be  nothing  but  nature.  The 
idea  is,  that  some  stimulus  of  an  intoxicating  nature 
must  of  necessity  be  provided ;  and  provided  it  has 
been,  and  probably  always  will  be,  until  humanity  is 
clothed  with  a  different  body,  that  shall  feel  the  influ- 
ence of  entirely  different  instincts.  Even  in  the  Bible, 
it  can  nowhere  be  found  that  the  use  jof  wine  is 
charged,  or  even  thought,  to  be  wrong ;  only  its  ex- 
cessive use,  its  abuse,  is  deprecated.  We  have  already 
quoted  abundantly  in  support  of  our  position,  and  we 
will  now  merely  add  the  sincere  injunction  of  the 
apostle,  —  "Add  to  your  faith,  virtue  ;  and  to  virtue, 
knowledge  ;  and  to  knowledge,  temperance"  —  not 
teetotalism,  but  nothing  more  than  a  temperate  use 
of  the  good  gifts  which,  properly  employed,  serve  to 
"  cheer  the  heart  of  man." 

Now,  we  say,  there  are  certain  classes  of  people  in 
this  our  modern  society,  to  whom  the  use  of  stimulants 
is  an  absolute  necessity.  In  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra  of 
the  year  1855,  a  distinguished  medical  writer  says, 
"  In  the  present  state  of  public  sentiment,  there  is  little 
danger  of  the  abuse  of  stimulants  by  educated  men 
who  desire  to  set  an  example  of  temperance ;  we  are 
not  sure  that  so  far  as  the  health  of  the  individual  is 
concerned,  the  error  is  not  on  the  other  side."  Again, 
the  same  writer  continues  as  follows :  "  We  acknowl- 
edge that,  with  most  physicians,  we  feel  very  often  a 
reluctance  to  advise  the  use  of  stimulants,  for  fear  of 
13* 


150  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

the  possible  formation  of  a  bad  habit.  But  we  have 
too  often  seen  their  good  effects,  when  ordered  by  a 
practitioner  bolder  or  less  scrupulous  than  the  greater 
number  of  the  physicians  of  the  present  day,  not  to 
feel  strongly  persuaded  that  there  are  many  in  our 
community  who  would  be  better  for  an  occasional  stim- 
ulant. It  is  true  that  one  in  perfect  health  does  not 
need  it,  cannot  be  made  better,  and  cannot  but  be  made 
worse  by  it.  But  this  is  the  condition  of  not  so  large  a 
number  as  is  generally  supposed" 

These  are  plain  truths,  and  plainly  stated.  An  emi- 
nent physician  thus  testifies,  too,  to  the  mortifying  fact 
that  there  are  plenty  of  men  belonging  to  his  own  pro- 
fession, who  would  not  dare  prescribe  what  they  feel 
assured  would  be  for  the  benefit  of  their  patients,  out 
of  fear  alone  to  the  riotous  and  tyrannical  prejudices 
of  the  community  whom  interested  and  unreflecting 
leaders  have  lashed  into  such  a  state  of  excitement. 
He  also  testifies  that  a  great  many  persons  require 
stimulus  as  much  as  they  do  food ;  and  that  while  it  is 
sometimes  injurious,  it  may  more  frequently  be  bene- 
ficial. It  is  seriously  worth  while  to  pause  and  reflect 
what  such  a  sort  of  public  sentiment  amounts  to,  and 
how  far  it  deserves  to  be  respected,  when  those  who 
are  popularly  esteemed  the  most  respectable  in  our 
midst,  are  forced  to  make  confessions  of  such  a  nature 
in  respect  to  their  fear  of  it ! 

It  may  be  true,  as  the  physician  above  quoted  says, 
that  persons  in  perfect  health  do  not  require  stimu- 
lants ;  yet  it  is  riot  less  certain  that  the  multitudes 


THE   NECESSITY   OP   STIMULANTS.  151 

whose  health  is  not  all  they  could  wish  it,  would  as- 
suredly receive  a  benefit  from  their  use.  Who  are  the 
really  well  ones,  and  how  many  do  they  number  ? 
How  many  are  there  about  us,  whose  very  pores  reek 
with  exuding  health  and  vitality,  whose  eyes  are  keen 
and  bright,  whose  step  is  quick  and  elastic,  and  whose 
spirits  are  far  above  the  clouds  and  fogs  of  partial  and 
temporary  despondency  ?  Surely,  let  us  have  that  ques- 
tion answered  before  we  proceed  to  stigmatize  any  who 
use  spirits  because  of  the  exhaustion  of  their  physical 
system.  We  are  told  by  pretty  nearly  all  foreigners 
that  we  are  a  lean,  lank  race  of  mortals,  and  it  may 
be,  in  a  large  degree,  true  ;  yet  not  so  strikingly  so, 
on  the  whole,  in  comparison  with  themselves,  as  might 
be  imagined.  Still,  it  is  sadly  enough  true  for  our 
present  purpose.  We  are  old  and  decrepit  long  before 
our  time  ;  but  for  what  reason  ?  Because  we  wear  our- 
selves out  with  making,  and  trying  to  make,  fortunes 
in  a  few  years;  and  those  few  who  accomplish  what 
they  aim  at  within  the  time  prescribed,  find  themselves 
obliged  ever  afterwards  to  be  occupied  in  nursing 
and  doctoring  their  broken-down  systems.  And  the 
many  who  do  not  succeed  in  their  exertions,  are 
but  doubly  broken ;  we  see  them  around  us  every 
where,  giving  evidence  in  abundance  that  they  are 
broken  in  ambition  and  spirits,  and  thoroughly  ruined 
in  health. 

So  we  show  a  generation  of  lean,  pale-faced,  round- 
backed  men,  whose  condition  has  been  made  a  thou- 
sand times  worse  by  dosing,  year  after  year,  with  quack 


152  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

medicines,  hoping  to  patch  up  the  decaying  system, 
and  make  it  last  until  the  projected  schemes  are  car- 
ried out,  or  unfortunately  fail.  Quack  medicines  com- 
plete the  work  that  over-exertion  begins.  Then  the 
mind  is  made  to  labor  with  a  swiftness  and  intensity 
calculated  to  wear  out  any  frame ;  as  if  all  that  was 
before  us  to  do  in  the  world  must  needs  be  done  within 
a  very  limited  time,  or  not  at  all !  "We  hardly  give 
the  time  to  eating,  drinking,  and  sleeping,  which  nature 
imperatively  demands  ;  and  as  for  recreations,,  we  do 
not  know  what  the  term  practically  means.  We  hurry 
through  with  every  thing ;  it  is  hurrying  on  our  clothes 
in  the  morning,  and  hurrying  them  off  at  night ;  hur- 
rying to  dinner,  and  hurrying  back  to  business  again. 
We  snatch  sleep,  rather  than  take  it  as  necessary  to  us, 
and  really  our  own  blessed  possession. 

And  what  is  to  be  inferred  from  such  lamentable 
habits  respecting  the  physical  health  of  those  who  per- 
sistently follow  them  up,  year  after  year  ?  That  they 
can  possibly  be  a  well  race,  —  that  is,  possessors  of 
ruddy  health  and  vigorous  strength  ?  The  farthest 
from  it  in  the  world.  Every  body  is  feeble.  Nobody 
can  stand  up,  stretch  out  his  arms,  and  say  that  he  is 
really  well.  All  are  ailing.  All  consult  the  doctors. 
All  run  to  and  from  the  apothecaries.  All  read  the 
flaming  advertisements  of  the  nostrums  in  the  news- 
papers. From  early  youth  till  the  time  when  affection 
closes  the  eyes  of  the  dying  one,  it  is  a  weary  life  of 
complaining  and  inexpressible  desires  for  a  something 
which  he  has  not ;  he  hardly  knows  what  that  some- 


THE   NECESSITY   OP    STIMULANTS.  153 

thing   is,  but   it   is    nothing   but   ruddy  and   blessed 
health. 

Now,  what  is  to  be  done  in  a  state  of  things  like  this  ? 
Evidently,  until  a  better  educated  public  opinion  shall 
compel  the  next  generation  to  commence  a  work  of 
practical  reform,  nothing  can  be  done  except  to  tinker 
and  patch  up  our  present  constitutions  the  best  way  we 
can.  And  that  is  all  that  can  be  done.  And  we  leave 
it  to  intelligent  and  unprejudiced  physicians  to  say 
whether,  for  this  purpose,  quack  medicines  are  worse 
or  better  than  pure  liquors,  properly  taken  into  an  en- 
feebled and  impoverished  system.  Their  answer  we 
have  already.  Such  systems  must  have  a  tonic  to  in- 
vigorate and  keep  them  up.  They  cannot  subsist 
without  it. 

And  even  those  persons  who,  being  at  present  in 
robust  health,  are  forced  by  circumstances,  and  the 
nature  and  exigencies  of  their  calling,  to  undergo  pro- 
tracted and  exhausting  labor,  require  stimulus  at  cer- 
tain times,  and  must  employ  it,  if  they  would  preserve 
to  themselves  their  own  constitutions  and  faculties. 
Excess  of  labor,  whether  of  body  or  mind,  which  every 
one  is  liable  at  certain  times  to  be  called  upon  to  per- 
form, requires  the  immediate  application  of  a  repairing' 
process.  The  tissues  must  be  made  as  whole  as  they 
were  before  the  labor  was  undertaken.  And  to  effect 
this,  a  certain  kind  of  stimulus  must  be  used.  The 
natural  instincts  of  the  race  have  long  ago  sought  out 
and  applied  these  stimulants,  and  they  will  continue 
to  use  them  so  long  as  they  shall  be  required  for  the 


154  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

service  in  hand.  And  not  all  the  laws  of  all  of  the 
states  of  Christendom  can  put  down  this  general  use 
of  such  stimulants,  simply  because  they  cannot  eradi- 
cate those  native  instincts  of  which  the  stimulants 
themselves  are  the  legitimate  product. 


LAWS   AGAINST   STIMULANTS.  155 


XXII. 

LAWS   AGAINST   STIMULANTS. 

LAWS  against  intoxication  are  a  great  deal  older  than 
people  generally  think  for.  And  still  people  have  in- 
dulged, more  or  less,  in  intoxication.  It  is  human 
nature  to  desire  to  taste  of  forbidden  pleasures ;  the 
desire  must,  we  think,  have  been  an  inheritance  from 
Adam.  As  early  as  twenty-one  hundred  years  before 
the  Christian  era,  a  History  of  China  shows  that  a  law 
against  intoxication  was  enacted  by  the  emperor  of 
the  Chinese,  far  more  stringent  than  was  ever  proposed 
in  these  days  of  ours.  All  lawyers,  and  persons  in 
certain  other  classes  of  society,  were  at  once  con- 
demned to  death  if  found  in  a  state  of  intoxication. 
The  palm  was  destroyed,  and  all  other  plants  uprooted, 
from  which  the  intoxicating  element  could  be  extracted. 
And  yet,  says  the  historian,  in  spite  of  all  these  most 
strict  precautions,  that  same  generation  proved  to  be 
one  remarkably  addicted  to  intemperance. 

In  Persia,  too,  such  laws  were  passed  at  a  very  early 
day.  In  Rome,  likewise,  under  the  rule  of  Romulus, 
there  was  an  exceedingly  rigid  law.  Temperance  so- 
cieties were  also  quite  popular  in  the  early  history  of 
Greece.  Both  the  Spartans  and  the  Carthaginians 
had  severe  laws  against  the  vice  of  intemperance,  and 


156  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

followed  extreme  measures  in  their  execution.  Lycur- 
gus,  King  of  Thrace,  enacted  a  "  Maine  Law,"  to  carry 
out  which  he  caused  not  only  the  wines  to  be  destroyed, 
but  even  the  vines  that  bore  them.  About  seven  hun- 
dred years  after  Christ,  Terbaldus,  a  Bulgarian  prince, 
did  the  same  thing.  Charlemagne  made  stringent 
laws  against  grog-shops,  drinking  healths,  and  other 
incentives  to  intemperance.  Constantine  banished 
rum-sellers,  and  levelled  their  houses  with  the  ground. 
The  Chinese  law  went  so  far  in  its  war  against  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  that  every  tiling  from  which  such  drinks 
could  be  produced  was  destroyed,  until  the  rice  plant 
and  the  palm  tree,  although  extremely  abundant  be- 
fore, were  altogether  extirpated,  and  became  unknown 
productions.  And  yet  the  ingenuity  of  the  Celestials 
opened  methods  to  them  by  which  they  could  obtain  a 
drink  that  would  produce  the  desired  intoxication ; 
showing  that  any  and  every  law  can  be  eluded  in  some 
way,  if  it  becomes  too  severe  for  the  silent  endurance 
of  the  people. 

A  similar  enactment  was  made  by  Mahomet,  and  the 
followers  of  the  Crescent  at  once  became  remarkable 
for  their  effeminate  habits  and  the  destroying  indul- 
gence of  their  sensual  appetites.  They  excited  their 
nervous  systems  with  coffee  and  tobacco,  until  they 
became  physically  unfitted  for  any  thing  like  manly 
exertion  ;  and  thus  they  frittered  away  their  brief  lives 
in  wild  delirium  or  stupefied  indulgence.  In  this  way 
they  have  lost  their  characteristics  as  a  distinct  race, 
and  would  have  been  wiped  off  the  map  of  nations,  but 


LAWS   AGAINST   STIMULANTS.  157 

for  foreign  aid  and  interference,  long  ago.  Since  the 
year  1688,  there  have  been  placed  upon  the  statute 
books  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  not  less  than  forty- 
eight  enactments  against  intemperance ;  and  some  of 
the  other  states  have  even  a  longer  record  than  this  to 
show  for  the  same  period  of  time.  In  our  Eastern 
States,  a  search  among  the  statutes  would  astonish 
those  who  fancy  that  every  thing  desirable  in  this 
world  can  be  secured  by  naked  legislation. 

The  evils  of  intemperance  —  that  is,  of  the  immod- 
erate and  excessive  use  of  wines  and  spirits  —  have  been 
deplored  by  Christian  men  of  every  age  and  generation. 
As  a  thoughtful  writer  in  one  of  our  popular  magazines 
has  well  expressed  it,  "  Politicians  and  governments 
have  devised  many  remedies  to  obviate  and  prevent 
the  enormous  expenses  of  pauperism  and  crime,  in 
consequence  of  excessive  indulgence  in  stimulants. 
Such  indulgence  not  only  debases  the  body,  mind,  and 
soul  of  man,  but  an  appetite  is  thereby  created,  which 
virtually  hands  over  the  wretch  to  the  keeping  of  a 
fiend,  who  changes  his  whole  nature,  destroys  his 
natural  affections,  and  induces  him  willingly  to  sacri- 
fice home,  wealth,  fame,  prospects,  hope,  and  heaven. 
Who  that  has  seen  a  moral  wreck  produced  by  this 
cause,  and  has,  perhaps,  endeavored  to  stay  the  mono- 
maniac, whose  downward  course  none  could  arrest ; 
who  that  has  seen  the  good  wife  mourn  over  the  lapse 
of  her  husband,  and  endeavor  to  lure  him  to  virtue ; 
who  that  has  seen  the  orphan  children  needing  bread 
and  suffering  for  the  want  of  education  and  employment, 
14 


158  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

— but  has  longed  for  a  cure  for  the  moral  pestilence,'  and 
has  cursed  the  conscienceless  retailer,  who  was  willing 
to  fatten  on  all  this  misery?  None  have  witnessed 
these  things  without  wishing  for  some  law  that  should 
effectually  prevent  such  outrages,  and  suitably  punish 
the  ^ordid  wretch  wh^w<ould  rob  the  innocent  and  rob 
his  nti&hbor."  it"  t 

And  the  writer  goes  on :  "  It  is  the  fashion  ,to  exalt 
the  present  $ge.  We  call  things  by  new  names,  and 
believe  that  we£j&ave  reached  a  new  era  of  experience 
and  discovery/  It  is  unquestionaby  true  of  it,  how- 
ever, that  none  have  equalled  it  in  moral  ^strength, 
and  in  the  prevalence  of  Christian  principles.  The 
great  law  of  Scripture  — '  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself  —  and  the  principle  of  St.  Paul,  who  wrould 
not  eat  meat  if  it  made  his  brother  to  offend,  never 
before  operated  practically  on  so  many  minds.  The 
moral  energy  and  Christian  excellence  of  our  social 
system  is  evidenced  in  the  prevailing  determination  to 
prevent  and  cure,  by  legislative  enactments,  the  evils 
of  intemperance.  The  people,  by  a  general  uprising, 
have  pressed  their  determination  upon  politicians  and 
legislators,  forcing  them  in  several  States  to  jjfQrio  the 
statute  book  a  law  more  stringent  than  aiiy  Before  en- 
acted in  this  country.  Thfs  remarkable  movement  is, 
in  its  aims,  altogether  worthy,  of  sympathy  ;  and,  if  it 
could  succeed  in  producing*  (T  serious  and  permanent 
diminution  in  the  amount  o!^ intemperance,  pauperism, 
and  crime,  it  would  merit  the  earnest  cooperation  of 
every  honest  man." 


LAWS   AGAINST   STIMULANTS.  159 

Yes  ;  if  it  could  succeed  in  producing  a  serious  and 
permanent  diminution  in  the  amount  of  intemperance, 
it  would  be  a  very  good  thing  indeed ;  but  that  prob- 
lem has  been  worked  out.  It  has  been  satisfactorily 
proved,  that  the  people's  rising  in  obedience  to  the  ex- 
citing appeals  of  lecturers  to  for^ce  legislation  on  behalf 
of  reform,  has  accomplished  no  "  serious  and  perma- 
nent diminution  of  intemperance  "  whatever.  Because 
the  old  instincts  of  human  nature  come  in  at  this  point, 
and  demand  that  room  and  scope  for  free  play  which 
belong  to  them.  They  refuse  to  have  bits  put  in  their 
mouths'and  then  to  be  driven  by  men  of  "like  pas- 
sions "  and  instincts.  And  such  an  honest,  deep-rooted 
element  of  our  common  nature  it  will  ever  be  found 
idle  to  hope  to  eradicate. 

Speaking  of  this  very  matter,  the  New  York  Inde- 
pendent—  a  religious  paper  —  says,  "We  must  not 
be  blind  to  the  facts  that  already  exist,  nor  to  those 
difficulties  which  the  carrying  into  effect  of  the  Maine 
Law  will  inevitably  breed  and  cherish.  By  the  en- 
forcement of  that  law,  thousands  of  men  in  our  city 
will  be  deprived  of  an  habitual  stimulus  and  source  of 
pleasure,*  What  is  to  take  the  place  of  the  lager  bier 
saloons,  and  the  hundreds  of  dens  for  drinking  and 
gambling  which  infest  -OUT  city?  Are  these  men  to 
have  nothing  supplied  to  them  for  that  which  is  taken 
away  ?  Truly,  if  this  is  to  be  so,  it  may  well  be  doubted 
if  the  law  is  wholly  a  gatfT  or  not  !  Some  amusement 
they  must  have,  some  recreation  they  will  have  ;  if  you 
take  away  their  drink^they  will  seek  lower  pleasures 


160  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

still,  such  as  are  untouched  by  law,  unless  they  are 
provided  with  means  whereby  they  may  improve  and 
elevate  their  lives." 

This  is  as  true  as  gospel.  We  heard  Wendell  Phil- 
lips say,  not  long  ago,  in  a  most  eloquent  and  well- 
reasoned  lecture  on  Temperance,  that  this  idea  of 
taking  away  a  source  of  amusement,  or  gratification, 
and  not  supplying  another,  and  especially  a  higher  one, 
in  its  place,  was  the  mark  of  the  folly  that  had  re- 
duced modern  legislation  on  the  subject  of  temperance 
to  its  present  anomalous  condition.  In  fact,  it  is  hardly 
better  than  an  abortion,  and  will  have  to  be  aban- 
doned, first  or  last,  by  all  who  have  embarked  in  it. 

Speaking  on  this  subject,  an  English  writer  says, 
"  France,  Italy,  Spain,  Hungary,  and  Germany  have 
no  restrictions  with  regard  to  intoxicating  drinks ; 
still,  very  little  intemperance  is  seen  in  those  coun- 
tries, while  our  statute  books  are  filled  with  laws,  and 
intemperance  is  the  national  vice  of  the  British  Islands, 
for  the  want  of  education  and  improvement  in  the 
moral  tone  of  society."  Such  facts  tell  very  hard 
upon  these  latter-day  theories  of  mere  sentimentalists, 
who  look  at  sturdy,  rough,  and  robust  human  nature 
through  the  rose-coloring  of  their  own  atmosphere. 
Statistics  and  facts  are  worth  every  thing  in  new  move- 
ments that  are  likely  to  be  dubious  in  their  operations, 
for  they  are  the  only  sure  and  reliable  basis  on  which 
theories  can  hope  to  be  built. 


THE   SATANIC   LICENSE.  161 


XXIII. 

THE  SATANIC  LICENSE;  OR,  A  BAD  CAUSE  BADLY 
DEFENDED. 

ZEAL  is  a  great  thing  in  any  cause  ;  but  where  it  is 
applied  to  a  cause  radically  wrong,  it  works  incalcula- 
ble mischief.  "  Zeal  without  knowledge  "  w^as  warned 
against  by  the  apostle. 

The  friends  of  prohibition  have  certainly  displayed  a 
zeal  in  their  operations  truly  worthy  of  something 
better  than  what  they  have  yet  accomplished.  Sea  and 
land  have  they  compassed,  to  make  a  single  proselyte 
more ;  after  which  it  appears  that  they  have  only  forced 
him  to  drink  worse  rum,  and  more  of  it,  than  ever 
before ;  just  according  to  the  account  to  be  found  in 
St.  Matthew's  Gospel.  They  have  alternately  used 
truth  or  suppressed  it,  as  best  suited  their  own  taste 
and  convenience.  Jesuit-like  they  have  consented  to 
do  evil,  in  order,  as  they  claim,  that  good  might  come 
out  of  it ;  but  so  late  in  the  day  as  this,  they  are  dis- 
covering that  an  evil  tree  cannot  bring  forth  good  fruit, 
neither  can  figs  be  begotten  of  thistles.  Of  course  we 
speak  only  of  those  ignorant,  self-opinionated,  and 
thoroughly  uncharitable  men,  who  are  wrongly  suffered 
to  take  and  keep  the  lead  in  such  an  important  matter 
as  temperance  reform. 
14* 

(raff  JVfcRSI'TVH 


162  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

Not  long  since,  we  were  reading  over  again,  and  with 
somewhat  more  of  a  critical  eye  than  when  we  first 
read  it,  a  little  thin  volume,  illustrated  with  a  diabol- 
ical cut,  —  that  is,  having  a  picture  of  the  devil  in  the 
frontispiece,  —  called  "  The  Mysterious  Parchment,  or 
the  Satanic  License."  The  author  is  the  Rev.  Joel 
Wakeman,  and  the  book  has  long  been  a  text-book 
with  the  leaders  and  magnates  and  officials  of  the  pro- 
hibition party.  Neal  Dow  swears  upon  it,  and  Dr. 
Jcwett  quotes  and  indorses  it.  It  is  from  the  prolific 
press  of  those  eminent  publishers,  Messrs.  John  P.  Jew- 
ett  &  Co.,  who  have,  in  their  day,  probably  published 
as  many  books  in  support  of  the  temperance  cause  as 
any  other  men.  "  The  Mysterious  Parchment,  or  the 
Satanic  License,"  is  a  simple  little  tale,  and  its  author 
sincerely  avers  that  it  is  based  on  nothing  but  facts. 

Now,  we  conceive  that  this  book  —  if  any  single  book 
can  be  —  is  a  personification  of  error,  combined  with 
exaggeration  and  untruth,  so  strangely  mixed  that  it 
would  be  hard  to  say  which  was  the  accidental,  and 
which  was  the  deliberate  falsehood.  But  as  it  has  been 
so  generally  indorsed  by  the  leaders  in  the  Maine  Law 
movement,  and  its  sentiments  have  been  so  often 
quoted  by  them  in  one  place  and  another,  and  its  au- 
thor has  been  so  highly  lauded  by  them  on  all  occasions, 
we  deem  it  no  more  than  our  duty,  as  we  likewise  know 
it  must  be  an  acceptable  work  to  its  truth-loving 
friends,  to  examine  into  some  of  its  more  palpable 
errors. 

In  his  preface,  the  author  sets  out  with  the  state- 


THE   SATANIC   LICENSE.  163 

ment  that  the  book  is  merely  a  story,  but  founded  alto- 
gether on  fact.  The  scene  of  this  story  is  laid  in  a 
town  which  he  calls  Harwood,  in  the  State  of  New 
York.  In  one  place  he  represents  a  person  going  be- 
fore the  Board  of  Excise,  and  arguing  against  granting 
any  person  in  the  whole  town  a  license  for  the  coming 
year.  This  same  fictitious  person  is  made  to  state,  in 
the  course  of  his  argument,  that  there  are  fifty  habitu- 
al drunkards  in  the  town,  twenty  or  thirty  occasional 
drunkards,  and  more  than  three  hundred  moderate 
drinkers  ;  and  he  further  says  there  are  not  more  than 
two  or  three  young  men  in  town  who  are  not  in  the 
habit  of  using  intoxicating  drinks.  All  very  well  till 
you  follow  him  along  a  little  way  farther.  There  the 
same  speaker  before  the  Excise  committee  is  made  by 
the  author  to  say,  that  about  four  hundred  voters  of 
the  same  town  petition  for  the  authorities  to  refuse 
another  license  !  This  strange  discrepancy  may  be 
found  by  turning  first  to  page  103,  and  afterwards  to 
page  106,  of  the  volume.  The  amount  of  his  story, 
therefore,  is,  that  there  are  about  four  hundred  drunk- 
ards in  town,  and  the  same  number  of  voters  ;  and  that 
all  the  voters,  which  of  course  comprises  all  the  drunk- 
ards, have  petitioned  to  have  the  sale  of  liquor  under 
the  license  law  stopped  ! 

Inasmuch  as  he  is  a  clergyman,  the  writer  is  of 
course  obliged  to  quote  Scripture  for  the  purpose  of 
backing  up  his  arguments  ;  but  we  cannot  see  that  he 
finds  any  passages  in  the  Bible  against  either  the  sale 
or  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors,  provided  the  same  are 


164  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

pure  and  are  used  in  a  proper  manner.  He  is,  to  be 
sure,  guilty  of  cutting  and  slicing  up  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture to  suit  the  case  in  hand,  and  always  to  make  them 
appear  to  mean  something  different  from  their  original 
and  natural  signification.  In  this  respect,  he  reminds 
us  of  a  well-known  anecdote  of  the  famous  English 
preacher,  Rowland  Hill.  Mr.  Hill  was  of  the  Metho- 
dist persuasion,  and  in  his  day  was  accounted  a  great 
revivalist.  The  fashion  of  that  day  seemed  at  one  time 
to  run  into  an  enormous  height  and  expansion  of  head- 
dresses, or,  as  they  were  called,  "  top-knots."  He  felt 
that  it  was  rapidly  becoming  cause  of  scandal  that  so 
many  of  the  ladies  of  his  congregation  should  have 
given  way  to  the  influence  of  the  fashion,  and  for  a 
long  time  was  puzzled  how  to  proceed.  It  was  evident 
that  the  practice  must  be  rebuked,  and  that  sharply 
and  openly.  If  matters  wrere  allowed  to  go  on  at  this 
rate,  there  would  soon  be  an  end  of  vital  religion  among 
his  people.  So  up  rose  Mr.  Hill,  one  pleasant  Sunday 
morning,  with  the  church  filled  with  the  enormous 
"  top-knots  "  of  the  ladies,  and  presenting  a  sight  cal- 
culated to  startle  the  most  careless  beholder,  and  com- 
•menced  with  the  following  bold  and  striking  text: 
"Top  not,  come  down!"  The  words  of  the  text,  he 
remarked,  were  to  be  found  in  the  17th  verse  of  the 
24th  chapter  of  Matthew  ;  which  was  really  the  case ; 
for  the  whole  verse  reads  thus  :  "  Let  him  which  is  on 
the  house-fop  not  come  down  to  take  any  thing  out  of 
his  house." 

Just  so  with  the  manner  in  which  the  Rev.  Joel 


THE   SATANIC   LICENSE.  165 

Wakeman  chooses  to  quote  Scripture  texts  in  his  "  Sa- 
tanic License."  They  have  no  more  logical  or  reason- 
able connection  with  the  subject  he  has  before  him, 
than  this  text  in  Matthew  naturally  had  with  the  "  top- 
knots "  that  were  worn  by  the  ladies  of  Rowland  Hill's 
congregation  ;  no  more  relation  to  rum-selling,  or  rum- 
drinking,  than  these  words  of  our  Saviour,  when  prop- 
erly quoted,  had  to  the  exaggerated  head-dresses  of 
those  ladies  who  flourished  before  the  days  of  our  grand- 
mothers. 

But  there  is  one  distinguishing  feature  about  this 
anti-license  book,  thus  illustrated  with  a  wood-cut  of 
his  Satanic  majesty,  which  we  desire  in  particular  to 
notice ;  and  it  is  where  this  mighty  prohibition  advo- 
cate and  wonderful  story  writer  —  we  were  going  to 
say  prophet,  too  —  blunders  so  fatally  for  his  cause  by 
telling  the  naked  truth !  The  avowed  purpose  of  his 
book  is  to  overthrow  and  break  up  the  whole  system  of 
licensing ;  but,  like  Balaam,  who  was  hired  by  Balak 
to  prophesy  against  the  armies  of  Israel,  but  after  all 
prophesied  the  other  way,  (see  Joshua,  24th  chapter, 
9th  verse,)  the  Rev.  Joel  Wakeman,  in  his  attempt  to 
destroy  the  license  system,  uses  an  argument  like  this 
in  its  favor.  We  quote  from  page  277  of  the  "  Satanic 
License,"  where  he  is  making  one  of  his  fictitious  char- 
acters answer  another  who  had  asked  him  what  he 
thought  about  adulterating  liquors  with  poisons  :  "  0,  it 
must  have  a  very  injurious  effect  upon  the  health  of 
those  who  use  the  liquors.  The  drugs  which  are  now 
used  is  the  reason  why  men  become  drunkards  so  soon. 


166  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

Since  my  remembrance,  it  was  a  common  thing  for  men 
to  use  pure  liquors  through  life  without  inebriation. 
We  have  no  such  cases  now.  It  is  a  common  thing 
now  to  see  young  men  of  seventeen  reeling  in  the 
streets  as  common  drunkards.  All  this,  I  think,  is  in 
consequence  of  drugged  liquors.  Thirty  years  ago,  also, 
delirium  tremens  was  a  rare  disease.  Now,  it  is  so 
common  that  almost  every  drunkard  has  its  symptoms, 
if  not  the  disease,  in  some  of  its  fearful  forms.  This, 
I  have  no  doubt,  is  to  be  charged  to  the  adulteration  of 
liquors" 

Well  and  truly  said.  It  is  exactly  what  we  have 
been  arguing  from  the  beginning  of  this  volume.  Here 
the  Rev.  Joel  Wakeman  admits  that  people  used  to 
drink  moderately  for  a  whole  lifetime,  without  becom- 
ing drunkards,  or  being  in  any  way  injured  thereby. 
Now,  Reverend  Joel,  we  have  got  you  just  where  we 
want  you ;  and  all  who  quote  your  writings  with  such 
evident  satisfaction,  are  in  the  same  tight  corner.  You 
admit  that  good  and  pure  liquor,  when  used  in  proper 
quantities,  hurts  no  one,  even  though  a  man  takes  it 
for  the  length  of  a  long  life.  And  you  say  what  every 
body,  who  knows  any  thing  about  it,  knows  to  be  true. 
Tell  it  not  in  Portland,  —  let  it  not  reach  the  ears  of 
Neal  Dow,  —  but,  brother  Joel,  like  Balaam  of  old,  you 
have  been  prophesying  in  our  favor  !  We  could  have 
asked  no  better  things  of  you,  even  if  we  had  had  the 
first  choice.  If  one  tenth  part  of  the  money  and  time 
and  labor  had  been  spent  to  purify  spirituous  liquors 
that  have  been  wasted,  and  worse  than  merely  wasted, 


THE   SATANIC   LICENSE.  167 

in  the  vain  attempts  to  destroy  them  altogether,  we 
should  now  have  real  temperance  men  where  drunken- 
ness abounds,  and  honest  and  consistent  friends  of  the 
temperance  reform  where  now  we  have  only  outside 
pretenders  and  knavish  hypocrites.  But  what  have  you 
frantic  anti-license  men  been  doing  to  purify  rum? 
You  have  only  succeeded  in  putting  the  author  of  the 
"  Hen  Fever  "  at  the  head  of  your  system,  —  and  where 
is  the  first  temperance  paper  or  orator  that  ever  dared 
raise  an  objection  to  the  measure  ? 

It  would  be  tenfold  more  easy  to  go  about  the  work 
of  purifying  liquors,  than  it  now  is  to  prevent  the  issue 
of  counterfeit  money  ;  and  yet  people  have  -not  stopped 
to  think  of  such  a  thing,  because  the  prohibition  lead- 
ers have  kept  them  in  such  a  state  of  excitement  over 
the  plan  to  exterminate  liquors  altogether.  Once  re- 
store and  improve  the  license  system,  and  secure  the 
appointment  of  competent  and  faithful  inspectors  of 
liquors,  just  as  we  do  the  appointment  of  weighers  of 
hay,  and  measurers  of  wood,  and  sealers  of  measures, 
—  and  then  make  every  rum-seller  responsible  for  all 
damage  done  by  the  sale  of  his  rum,  whether  accruing 
to  the  individual,  to  the  individual's  family,  or  to  the 
community,  —  and  establish  it  that  every  dealer  in 
liquors  who  is  not  thus  responsible  is  a  nuisance,  to  be 
abated  after  the  style  of  nuisances  generally,  —  and  we 
should  be  troubled  with  very  little  more  strychnine 
whiskey  and  dead-shot  for  bedbugs,  retailed  by  the 
glass  for  the  purpose  of  murdering  such  persons  as  can 
get  nothing  better  to  drink.  Those  who  truly  love  the 


168  THE  EAMROD  BROKEN. 

human  race  would  be  apt  to  take  such  steps  as  would 
first  of  all  extirpate  the  destroying  influences  that  are 
now  felt  with  such  fatal  effect  on  every  side.  If,  too, 
they  would  spend  their  energies  on  proper  and  practi- 
cable objects,  they  would  try  to  understand,  first,  the 
instincts  and  hereditary  habits  of  the  human  family, 
and,  secondly,  seek  to  apply  only  those  remedies  to  ex- 
isting faults  that  would  be  likely  to  reach  and  remove 
them. 

The  "  Satanic  License  "  affords  us  no  encouragement 
that  its  author  knows  himself  either  what  ought  to  be 
done,  or  how  to  do  it.  Such  books  do  little  good,  for 
they  only  serve  to  make  passionate  partisans  where 
they  ought  to  encourage  men  to  use  their  perceptions 
and  their  reason. 


THE  MAINE  LAW.  169 


XXIV. 

THE    MAINE   LAW. 

THIS  is  a  statute  different  in  all  important  respects 
from  other  statutes ;  because,  instead  of  taking  things 
as  they  now  are,  and  applying  its  operations  to  them 
after  a  perfectly  natural  method,  it  unmakes  what  has 
been  already  established,  calls  that  a  crime  which  nei- 
ther the  common  law  nor  common  sentiment  agrees  to 
call  such,  raises  opposition  where  only  general  assent 
should  exist,  and  excites  the  passions  where  it  should 
only  excite  the  respect  of  the  community.  Those  who 
framed  it  did  so  in  the  mistaken  belief  that  a  tempo- 
rary inflammation  of  popular  feeling,  or  inordinate 
excitement  of  popular  sentiment,  was  a  true  and  per- 
manent condition  of  the  public  mind;  that  aroused 
passion  and  sympathy  was  an  enduring  form  of  public 
opinion,  —  whereas  it  had  no  logical  connection  with 
public  opinion  at  all.  For  what  men  think  in  a  state 
of  passionate  excitement,  they  do  not  think  ;  reason 
does  not  guide  or  control  in  such  a  condition  of  the 
human  mind. 

The  Maine  Law  is  so  called  from  the  fact  that  it  had 

its  practical  origin  in  this  country,  in  Maine  ;  still,  that 

State  cannot  rightly  lay  claim  to  having  produced  it. 

It  was  the  fruit  borne  of  the  labors  of  men  like  the 

15 


170  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

.elder  Beecher  and  Dr.  Hewitt,  and  not  of  those  of  Neal 
Dow.  It  frequently  happens,  however,  that  some  new 
man  starts  up  to  usurp  the  honor  which  other  men 
deserve  to  wear,  merely  because  it  so  fell  out  that  he 
was  a  willing  instrument  in  consummating  a  work 
which  others  before  him  had  spent  their  lives  in  carry- 
ing forward.  We  may  say,  in  fact,  that  the  Maine  Law 
is  the  remote  offspring  of  the  old  alliance  known  as  the 
"  American  Temperance  Union." 

The  immediate  manner  in  which  this  law  came  into 
being  has  been  so  well  described  by  another,  that  we 
prefer  to  quote  from  him,  to  attempting  the  description 
ourselves :  "  Philanthropists  and  Christians,  who  had 
expended  much  zeal  and  effort  in  favor  of  temperance 
reform,  —  while  they  saw  very  great  improvement ; 
while  intoxicating  drinks  had  been  banished  from  the 
sideboards  of  most  families  ;  while  those  who  took  the 
lead  in  moral  influence  abstained  from  their  use  ;  and 
the  principles  of  temperance,  which,  a  quarter  of  a 
century  before,  were  scoffed  at,  had  now  become  uni- 
versally received  by  the  good  and  virtuous,  and  it  was 
no  longer  an  opprobrium  to  be  a  teetotaler,  —  still,  as 
we  say,  philanthropists  and  Christians  were  impressed 
with  a  conviction  that  there  yet  remained  much  in  the 
habits  of  the  community  which  needed  reformation. 

"  Dram-shops  abounded.  The  young  men  were  pre- 
sented with  the  intoxicating  cup  at  public  dinners ;  and 
festival  occasions  were  not  regarded  as  complete  with- 
out their  use.  The  tavern  was  the  rallying  point  in 
many  communities,  and  furnished  the  place  of  meeting 


THE   MAINE  LAW.  171 

on  any  occasion  which  called  the  people  together. 
Youth  associated  in  military  and  fire  companies,  and 
those  who  desired  to  be  regarded  as  fashionable  were 
peculiarly  exposed  to  temptation.  Temperance  was 
growing  less  popular ;  there  was  an  apparent  disposition 
in  the  community  to  relapse  into  habits  of  excess  ;  yet 
there  seemed  to  be  nothing  more  that  the  advocates  of 
temperance  could  do." 

So,  of  course,  they  must  needs  go  to  work  and  undo 
what  they  had  already  done.  They  were  impatient 
because  the  world  would  not  be  reformed  as  fast  as 
they  wished  to  reform  it !  therefore,  says  the  writer 
from  whom  we  quote, — 

"  At  this  juncture,"  —  although  we  confess  ive  can- 
not see  exactly  what  that  "juncture"  was,  —  "the 
experiment  of  a  prohibitory  law  was  conceived.  It 
was  eagerly  regarded  as  the  '  Eureka,'  by  means  of 
which  this  giant  evil  could  be  effectually  vanquished. 
But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  this  law,  with  all  its  strin- 
gent provisions,  loses  sight  of  the  operations  of  human 
nature.  The  word  6  prohibitory  '  would  seem  to  imply 
the  possibility  of  forbidding  effectually  the  use,  in  any 
form,  of  intoxicating  drinks.  The  feature  of  that  strin- 
gent law  of  Maine,  which  imprisons  the  traveller  who 
has  a  vial  of  brandy  among  his  baggage,  or  the  porter 
ho  leaves  a  bottle  at  a  dwelling,  or  fines  the  physician 
who  furnishes  it,  seems  to  suppose  the  possibility  of 
legislators  making  dietetic  regulations  which  shall  be 
regarded  as  binding  upon  the  community." 

And  upon  this  point,  our  author  speaks  so  well  that 


172  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

we  shall  allow  him  to  continue :  "  There  is  no  prin- 
ciple with  regard  to  which  men  are  so  sensitive  as  that 
of  personal  liberty.  A  small  community  might  be  will- 
ing, for  the  sake  of  those  whose  idiosyncrasy  drew  them 
into  intemperance,  to  relinquish  the  use  of  stimulants. 
But  it  is  Utopian  to  expect  that  the  majority  of  our  citi- 
zens will  consent  to  a  law  that  shall  decide  for  them 
questions  relating  to  their  diet  and  regimen,  which  it  is 
eminently  their  province  and  right  to  decide  for  them- 
selves !  By  attempting  too  much,  there  is  danger  of 
losing  vantage  ground,  and  of  failing  to  obtain,  such 
wise  enactments  as  can  be  effectively  enforced." 

The  case  is  well  and  truly  stated.  The  great  point 
is  only  this,  that  human  nature  will  not  consent  to  be 
reformed  in  this  patent  way,  but  insists  on  doing  the 
work  itself,  if  it  is  done  at  all.  And  the  prohibitionists 
are  only  kicking  against  the  pricks,  when  they  persist 
in  their  futile  attempts,  and  snarl  and  snap  because 
human  nature  does  not  happen  to  be  something  differ- 
ent from  what  it  is.  They  will  be  obliged,  we  fear,  to 
begin  and  do  the  work  all  over  again,  making  man 
something  quite  different  from  what  he  is  now. 

There  is  another  point  to  be  considered.  The  Amer- 
ican mind  is  ever  prone  to  extremes.  Public  opinion 
is  any  thing  but  steadfast  in  this  country.  To-day  it  is 
for,  and  to-morrow  it  is  against.  Now  it  is  up,  and 
now  it  is  down.  We  always  want  to  overdo  matters — 
cannot  be  satisfied  unless  we  get  more  than  what  was 
at  first  proposed.  We  insist  on  crossing  the  line  that 
limits  temperance  and  moderation,  even  when  we  aim 


THE   MAINE   LAW.  173 

to  preach  moderation  itself.     It  is  all  a  great  mistake, 
and  a  fatal  one. 

If  we  wish  to  enact  a  law  that  shall  put  a  stop  to 
tippling  practices,  shut  up  dram-shops,  and  purify  in 
this  way  the  public  morals,  we  must  be  careful  at  the 
same  time  not  to  make  such  a  law  as  will  both  em- 
barrass and  insult  the  temperate  and  law-respecting 
portion  of  the  community.  Here  is  where  the  danger 
lies  ;  in  seeking  to  avoid  one  extreme,  another  has  been 
run  into.  Then,  again,  people  are  so  eager  to  run  after 
cliques  and  factions,  as  if  one  must  needs  enroll  his 
name  among  them,  or  he  is  nobody.  But  of  this  grows 
that  excessive  and  weak  desire  to  appear  consistent  in 
one's  opinions,  which  shows  a  greater  regard  for  the 
opinions  themselves  than  for  their  effect.  And  on  no 
one  subject  has  cliquism  been  more  rampant  than  on 
that  of  temperance.  It  has  had  recourse  to  all  intem- 
perate practices,  for  the  sake  of  carrying  temporarily 
its  own  end.  It  raged  so  high  at  one  time,  that  no  man 
was  esteemed  worth  listening  to  in  a  temperance  meet- 
ing unless  he  had  come  up  out  of  a  gutter,  and  could 
narrate  the  most  disgusting  experiences.  Hence  the 
poor,  ragged,  and  thoroughly  worthless  rascal,  who  had 
hung  about  the  greater  number  of  years  in  filthy  bar- 
rooms, was  infinitely  preferred  as  a  speaker  to  those 
who  really  had  observed  and  seriously  thought  upon 
the  matter  of  temperance  reform.  And  the  style  of 
oratory  was,  of  course,  to  correspond.  It  did  not  bring 
a  blush  to  a  man's  cheek,  to  get  up  before  a  large  audi- 
ence and  confess  what  an  ignorant  beast  he  had  taken 
15* 


174  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

delight  in  being  all  his  past  life,  —  how  many  times  a 
week  he  had  been  dead  drunk,  —  how  often  he  had 
been  carried  home  on  a  board,  or  a  shutter,  and  tum- 
bled into  his  bed,  —  or  trundled  along  to  the  same 
place  in  a  handcart  or  a  wheelbarrow. 

And  the  same  spirit  rules  to-day ;  and  it  is  this  spirit 
that  we  are  laboring  to  show  up  as  exactly  the  wrong 
Spirit?  —  as  that  which  works  more  mischief  than  it  can 
ever  work  good.  It  betrays  itself  in  every  possible  way 
now.  It  calls  on  a  man  to  enroll  his  name  among  some 
order  of  self-styled  temperance  men ;  rigs  him  up  in  a 
gaudy  coat  of  regalia ;  and  acquaints  him  with  certain 
secret  winks,  nods,  and  signs,  by  the  favor  of  which  he 
may  gain  access  to  up-stair  lodges,  back-door  caucuses, 
and  purposeless  fraternities.  It  demands  further  of 
him,  that  he  shall  join  in  the  general  cry  for  stringent 
laws,  —  no  matter  whether  there  is  a  likelihood  of  their 
ever  being  carried  into  operation  or  not,  —  and  obedi- 
ently vote  for  every  man  who  is  proposed  as  a  candidate 
through  whose  aid  such  laws  are  to  be  enacted. 

And  so  comes  this  wild  shout,  which  we  have  all 
heard  so  long,  for  statutes  that  shall  declare  liquors  to 
be  poisons,  and  constitute  it  a  criminal  offence  to  be 
connected  with  the  traffic  in  them ;  for  statutes  that 
shall  put  liquor  on  the  same  footing  with  strychnine 
and  arsenic,  and  prohibit  their  sale  under  any  circum- 
stances except  for  certain  prescribed  purposes.  And 
the  Maine  Law  has  been  enacted  in  certain  States,  al- 
though its  execution  is  more  an  impossibility  to-day 
than  it  ever  was.  It  has  been  pronounced  unconstitti- 


THE  MAINE  LAW.  175 

tional  by  some  of  the  State  courts,  and  therefore 
amended  and  otherwise  tinkered  so  as  to  cover  the 
emergency.  Few  or  no  convictions  have  as  yet  fol- 
lowed its  enactment  in  Massachusetts  or  in  Maine, 
while  in  New  York  and  the  States  farther  west,  it  has 
been  confessed  to  be  utterly  impracticable. 

Still  there  are  a  few  men  who  cling  to  the  infatua- 
tion of  believing  that  such  a  law  can  as  well  be  executed 
to-day  as  any  other  law.  Neal  Dow  believes  it,  or  at 
least  pretends  to  believe  it ;  and  if  he  could  have  only 
his  own  autocratic  way  about  it,  he  would  make  of 
Maine  the  same  sort  of  a  state  that  one  will  find  in 
many  parts  of  over-governed  Europe  —  in  every  little 
town  a  sort  of  custom-house,  at  which  the  traveller's 
baggage,  or  clothing,  would  be  inspected  by  an  igno- 
rant and  insolent  guard.  For  this  must  certainly  be 
the  result  of  it.  And  this  is  the  kind  of  liberty  which 
such  forcible  intermeddlers  with  popular  morals  would 
fain  establish  all  over  the  land ;  if  people  will  not  be- 
come moral  of  themselves,  then  they  shall  be  made 
moral  by  the  application  of  law  !  They  shall  become 
better,  at  all  events  ! 

Mr.  Delavan,  the  great  teetotal  apostle  of  Albany, 
predicted  that  in  a  short  time  after  the  passage  of  this 
law  in  New  York,  that  vast  emporium  of  commerce 
would  become  pure  and  clean  of  every  thing  like  liquor 
and  liquor  influences  ;  the  very  sale  of  rum  by  the  glass 
was  to  be  prohibited  without  any  mistake.  And  the 
twenty,  thirty,  and  forty  thousand  drinking  places  to 
be  found  open,  and  doing  a  good  business,  too,  in  New 


• 


176  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

York,  are  the  best,  or  worst,  possible  commentary  on 
his  vain  and  ill-digested  opinions. 

The  fact  literally  is,  this  Maine  Law  has  as  yet  ac- 
complished nothing,  and  can  accomplish  nothing.  Be- 
cause it  aims  at  too  much ;  it  travels  entirely  out  of  the 
record ;  it  has  become  a  mere  engine  in  the  hands  of 
ambitious  men,  who  seek  for  power  only,  and  the  pop- 
ular sentiment  cannot  offer  such  a  creature  its  sympa- 
thy or  support.  Not  until  these  pretended  reformers 
—  good  men,  some  of  them  —  return  to  the  paths  of 
common  sense  again,  can  they  hope  to  make  any  prog- 
ress in  purging  tire  world  of  this  giant  evil  that  is 
called  Intemperance.  Of  one  thing,  at  least,  must  they 
rest  satisfied ;  and  that  is,  that  no  such  progress  as  they 
count  on  can  be  made  under  the  aiispices  of  any  so- 
called  "  Maine  Law." 


THE  CAUSES   OF  INTEMPERANCE.  177 


XXV. 

THE  CAUSES   OF  INTEMPERANCE. 

IN  the  excitement  and  fury  incident  to  getting  up 
parties  on  the  inefficient  and  impracticable  Maine  Law, 
scarcely  any  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  leading 
point  in  all  this  controversy,  which  is,  the  causes  of  in- 
temperance. It  is  to  this  point  that  we  all  need  to  come 
back,  and  take  our  bearings  again  upon  this  matter ; 
for  it  is  certain  that  no  disease,  and  no  evil,  is  ever  to 
,  be  cured  or  eradicated,  unless  its  character  and  the 
laws  of  its  operation  are  first  well  understood,  and  so 
the  best  method  is  made  known  after  which  it  may  be 
treated. 

We  find  that  vast  numbers  are  addicted  to  iiltemper- 
ance ;  not  wretches  and  vagabonds  all  of  them,  but  many 
among  those  whom  we  all  know,  and  whom  the  world 
otherwise  delights  to  honor.  How  comes  this  about  ? 
Why  is  one  man  intemperate  in  his  habits,  and  another 
right  the  contrary  ?  And  is  there  no  allowance  to  be 
made  in  this  estimate  for  differences  in  circumstances, 
situation,  surroundings,  and  temperament?  Can  all 
men  be  measured  by  an  absolute  standard,  —  all  laid 
on  the  same  bed,  and  stretched  or  trimmed  off  to  suit 
only  the  length  of  the  bed  ?  If  it  is  upon  such  an 
ignorant  assumption  as  this  that  the  temperance  reform 


178  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

proceeds,  then  all  hope  of  making  more  out  of  it  than 
a  piece  of  unmitigated  folly  may  as  well  be  abandoned. 

Look,  first,  at  the  weakness  of  our  common  nature 
on  different  occasions,  and  when  subjected  to  different 
moods,  and  then  at  the  temptations  that  beset  that 
nature  at  every  turn,  ever  ready  to  take  advantage  of 
its  weakness  and  its  despondent  moods.  Here  is  a 
poor  man  who  finds  no  relaxation  from  his  tasking 
labor  from  one  week's  end  to  another  ;  and  just  at  this 
critical  juncture  the  dram-shop  or  the  cheerful  bar- 
room presents  itself,  well  lighted,  filled  with  chatty 
acquaintances,  and  always  accessible  ;  where,  too,  all 
who  frequent  it  meet  on  terms  of  perfect  equality,  if 
not  fraternity.  Do  you  say  there  are  no  naturally 
strong  enticements  for  that  man  in  such  a  place  as  this, 
especially  when  the  whole  of  his  home  is  embraced 
within  four  dreary  walls,  or  at  most  in  a  cellar-like 
tenement,  whose  light  often  enough  comes  down 
through *&  trap-door,  if  at  all  ?  Such  a  man  would  not 
be  a  human  being,  as  God  originally  made  human  be- 
ings, if  he  did  not  prefer  the  cheerful  bar-room,  or 
dram-shop,  to  his  own  ill-lighted,  ill-ventilated,  and 
thoroughly  squalid  quarters.  In  a  climate  like  this 
of  ours,  especially  where  alcoholic  stimulus  has  so  long 
usurped  the  place  of  milder  and  safer  beverages,  the 
bar-room  of  course  becomes  a  powerful  attraction,  and 
there  are  formed  those  unfortunate  habits  that  lead 
their  victims  on  to  the  destroying  disease  of  intem- 
perance. 

In  this  respect  we  are  like  the  English.     The  French, 


THE   CAUSES   OF   INTEMPERANCE.  179 

and  indeed  most  of  the  people  of  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope, when  they  meet  socially,  are  perfectly  content  to 
sit  down  over  a  glass  of  some  light  and  harmless  wine, 
or  even  to  sit  and  sip  a  beverage  as  innocent  as  sugar, 
and-water ;  whereas  we,  like  the  English,  must  needs 
pour  down  streams  of  the  most  powerful  alcoholic  stim- 
ulus, oftentimes  very  slightly  diluted,  until  the  brain 
feels  the  fire  and  all  the  veins  swell  with  the  intense 
excitement.  This  habit  is  in  a  good  degree  an  inherit- 
ance, and  partly  an  advance  upon  what  descended  to 
us  in  the  way  of  appetite  and  temperament.  But  what 
is  the  reason  the  masses  of  our  people  cannot  accustom 
themselves  to  milder  and  more  innocent  stimulants  of 
the  social  feeling  ?  Why  must  they  needs  descend  to 
the  gross  and  destroying  practice  of  intoxication,  in 
order  to  testify  one  to  the  other  the  satisfaction  they 
experience  in  coming  together  ?  Why  this  first  and 
last  resort  always  to  strong  drink,  and  in  such  immod- 
erate quantities  ?  There  is  an  answer  for  these  ques- 
tions :  Because  no  provision  is  made  among  our  people 
for  innocent  recreations  and  amusements,  and  hence 
no  taste  for  them  has  as  yet  sprung  up  ;  their  only 
resort  is  the  bar-room,  and,  with  adulterated  liquors, 
consequent  intoxication. 

We  have  no  games  and  diversions,  —  no  holiday  fes- 
tivals and  general  jubilees ;  but  the  rout  is  made  up  of 
an  oddly  assorted  mixture  of  military  turn-outs,  target 
excursions,  firemen's  demonstrations,  and  public  pa- 
rades,—  most,  or  all,  of  which  demand  more  or  less 
stimulus  from  the  bar-room  or  the  dram-shop,  and  may 


180  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

be  said  to  possess  that  special  element  in  a  correspond- 
ing proportion.  Now,  if  we  banish  the  vile  grog-shops, 
which  a  proper  license  statute  would  be  certain  to  do 
for  us,  we  must  supply  their  places  with  something 
better,  for  it  will  never  answer  to  create  a  vacuum  and 
leave  it  unprovided  for.  This  can  be  done,  for  there 
never  yet  was  a  want  felt  but  some  one  stepped  in  to 
supply  it.  And  here  is  where  public  rooms  for  conver- 
sation, for  reading,  and  similar  social  purposes  might 
be  provided,  with  drinks  at  hand  of  an  enlivening  but 
not  inebriating  nature,  and  with  games  of  every  de- 
scription to  cheer  and  enliven  the  spirits.  In  such 
places  the  habits  of  a  coming  generation  might  just  as 
well  be  formed,  and  formed  on  right  principles,  as  in 
those  other  places  where  all  is  now  placed  at  so  great 
a  hazard.  Here  distilled  liquors  might  be  proved  to 
be  not  the  essential  elements  and  conditions  of  enjoy- 
ment they  are  now  popularly  supposed  to  be ;  and 
young  men,  whose  habits  are  forming,  would  learn  that 
the  best  and  only  true  way  was  to  practise  the  very 
necessary  art  of  governing  themselves. 

The  condition  of  those  unfortunate  persons,  however, 
with  whom  a  morbid  desire  for  unhealthy  and  excessive 
stimulus  has  been  an  inheritance,  deserves  more  than 
the  passing  notice  and  the  hollow  expressions  of  half- 
pity  they  have  heretofore  received.  In  truth,  those 
who  have  been  chiefly  in  the  habit  of  talking  on  teeto- 
talism,  or  temperance  even,  have  not  begun  to  under- 
stand the  lamentable  condition  of  this  class  of  people. 
Here  is  a  state  of  things  most  important  in  connection 


THE   CAUSES   OF  INTEMPEBANCE.  181 

with  this  subject,  but  to  which  such  reformers  have 
steadfastly  shut  their  ears  and  eyes.  Are  such  un- 
happy persons  to  be  proceeded  against  as  criminals  ? 
Not  at  all ;  the  rule  will  be  found  not  to  work.  They 
are  manifestly  an  exception  to  any  law,  and  are  to  be 
considered  and  provided  for  accordingly.  The  taste 
for  strong  liquors,  —  and  the  stronger  the  better, — 
which  they  have  both  inherited  and  made  controlling, 
is  their  one  great  curse  and  cause  of  misery.  Society 
forgets  entirely  what  it  owes  to  itself  and  to  each  of  its 
members,  if  it  omits  to  include  this  very  large  class  in 
its  general  estimate. 

The  leading  and  most  widely  operating  causes  of  in- 
temperance, then,  we  think  we  have  already  named : 
in  the  first  place,  it  is  the  fault  of  our  social  manners 
and  customs,  that  scarcely  admit  anything  like  rec- 
reations or  amusements  within  their  circle  ;  next,  it 
comes  of  the  fiery  poisons  and  adulterations,  one  of 
whose  elements  is  the  deadly  strychnine,  to  the  use  of 
which,  through  the  very  lack  of  social  pleasures,  men 
are  driven  ;  and  lastly,  the  disease  of  intemperance  — 
for  it  is  undeniable  that  such  it  is  —  is  handed  down 
from  father  to  son,  and  the  teeth  of  the  children  are 
indeed  set  on  edge  with  the  grapes  eaten  by  the  fathers. 
Here  are  three  grand  causes  for  the  prevalence  and 
increase  of  intemperance  ;  and  reformers,  in  addressing 
themselves  to  the  consideration  of  this  question,  must 
not  think  that  any  one  of  them  can  be  overlooked,  or 
passed  by  as  of  secondary  importance. 

Latterly,  however,  evidence  is  producing  that  the 
16 


182  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

more  thoughtful  and  truly  philanthropic  of  our  reform- 
ers are  taking  steps  to  provide  for  at  least  one  division, 
or  class,  of  these  causes.  They  have  studied  intem- 
perance as  a  disease,  and  resolved  as  such  to  treat  it. 
In  New  York  State,  an  Inebriate  Asylum  was  estab- 
lished last  year,  with  the  congratulations  and  God- 
speed of  all  well-wishers  of  the  human  race.  Many 
professed  temperance  men  are  as  strongly  inclined  as 
ever  to  entertain  doubts  of  its  practical  efficiency,  yet 
all  seem  to  unite  in  conceding  to  it  an  opportunity  for 
a  fair  trial.  Medical  men,  who  have  given  their  time 
to  the  careful  study  of  this  subject,  must  be  supposed 
to  know  most  exactly  what  are  the  statistics  in  relation 
to  the  prevalence  of  this  unfortunate  malady ;  and  to 
them  must  we  look  for  a  still  more  thorough  diagnosis 
of  such  a  disease  than  we  at  present  happen  to  possess. 
Still,  says  an  influential  daily  journal  of  New  York 
city,  "It  is  enough  to  know  that  a  large  number  of 
eminent  names  are  being  erased  from  the  list  of  the 
living,  where  the  true  cause  of  death  is  never  suspected 
by  the  community  at  large,  (the  interposition  of  sur- 
viving friends  saving  their  memories  from  indelible 
disgrace,)  '  died  from  delirium  tremens'  being  the 
fearful  secret.  At  least  two  on  the  list  of  subscribers 
for  the  contemplated  Asylum  —  men  who  stood  high 
in  the  profession  of  law  and  literature  —  are  already 
victims  to  this  insidious  destroyer !  It  has  been  as- 
serted that  men  are  not  to  be  found  who  would  volun- 
tarily commit  themselves  to  an  institution  for  inebriates ; 
but  this  is  refuted  by  the  fact  that  almost  before  the 


THE   CAUSES   OF   INTEMPERANCE.  183 

foundation  stone  was  laid,  there  had  been  twenty-eight 
hundred  applications  for  admission,  of  whom,  accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Turner,  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  New 
York  State  Inebriate  Asylum,  'more  than  four  hun- 
dred are  women  in  the  high  walks  of  life,  educated  and 
accomplished.'  There  appears  to  be  no  room  for  rea- 
sonable doubt  upon  this  point.  The  chief  divergence 
in  public  opinion  is  occasioned  by  doubts  as  to  the 
permanency  of  the  cures  effected  by  an  inebriate  asy- 
lum, the  belief  being  prevalent  that  where  disease  has 
once  so  far  advanced  as  to  deprive  the  individual  of 
self-control,  a  relapse  to  former  habits  would  almost 
inevitably  ensue  upon  the  removal  of  external  re- 
straints ;  that  organic  changes  already  wrought  in  the 
system  would  defy  all  attempts  at  correction." 

It  is  to  this  feature  —  the  pathology  of  inebriety  — 
that  the  New  York  State  Asylum  proposes  to  address 
itself ;  to  inebriety  of  the  stomach  and  brain,  which  is 
first  constitutional,  and  then  hereditary  in  its  character. 
According  to  Dr.  Turner,  "  the  time,  and  the  only 
time,  when  this  institution  can  reach  the  inebriate,  is 
when  he  has  lost  self-control,  and  the  law  regards  him 
as  a  dangerous  citizen,  or  when  he  can  be  induced  to 
enter  the  Asylum  voluntarily.  A  large  proportion 
of  cases,  as  shown  by  the  experience  of  some  of  our  in- 
sane asylums,  may  be  cured  in  a  year,  —  within  whioh 
time  the  morbid  condition  of  the  stomach  will  be  re- 
moved, and  the  powers  of  the  constitution  renovated, 
so  that  the  unnatural  craving  for  artificial  stimulus 
will  no  longer  exist.  Though  this  is  the  first  institution 


184  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

of  the  kind  in  existence  specially  designed  for  the  treat- 
ment of  this  disease,  it  has  the  substantial  indorsement 
of  all  the  prominent  physicians  in  the  State." 

These  are  movements,  it  must  be  confessed,  in  the 
right  direction.  Intemperance  is  a  disease,  either  ac- 
quired or  inherited,  or  both,  and  as  such  it  will  in  time 
come  to  be  treated.  The  only  thing  at  present  in  the 
way  is,  the  excited  passions  and  prejudices  that,  in 
certain  places,  are  strong  enough  to  carry  all  before 
them. 


A   THOUSAND   DOLLAKS.  185 


XXVI. 

A  THOUSAND   DOLLARS. 

SOME  time  during  the  month  of  May,  in  the  year 
1856,  an  offer  of  a  thousand  dollars  was  made  to  the 
writer  of  the  best  essay  on  temperance  legislation,  to- 
gether with  the  outline  of  a  law  —  the  essays  to  be 
subjected  to  the  careful  examination  of  competent 
judges  and  respectable  men  in  the  community,  but  no 
one  to  take  the  prize  unless  his  effort  should,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  judges,  be  found  worthy  of  their  ap- 
proval. This  munificent  offer  was  made  by  Mr.  John 
M.  Barnard,  of  Boston,  a  well-known  distiller,  and  a 
man  who,  as  is  understood,  is  both  able  and  ready  to 
carry  out  what  he  undertakes. 

The  motive  apparent  in  the  making  of  this  offer  was, 
to  call  out  the  best  possible  productions  from  the  best 
minds  of  the  country  on  the  subject  of  Temperance, 
and  a  law  that  should  embody  the  general  sentiment 
of  the  community,  in  relation  to  the  sale  and  use  of 
liquors.  As  a  citizen  having  at  heart  the  highest  and 
broadest  interests  of  the  society  of  which  he  was  a 
member,  he  performed  an  act  of  the  most  praiseworthy 
and  honorable  character  ;  and  it  only  remained  for  the 
temperance  men,  who  professed  to  have  at  heart  the 
16* 


186  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

same  high  and  permanent  interests,  to  come  forward 
and  aid  Mr.  Barnard  in  his  project  to  establish  this 
matter  on  a  sure  foundation,  because  on  principles  of 
justice  and  truth. 

But  did  temperance  men  do  any  such  thing  ?  Far- 
thest from  it  possible.  They  sneered  at  the  proposal, 
and  turned  up  their  noses  at  the  offer.  Why  ?  Simply 
because  the  gentleman  making  the  offer  did  not  happen 
to  belong  to  their  peculiar  creed  !  He  wtis  a  distiller, 
and  of  course,  in  their  estimation,  could  not  be  sup- 
posed to  possess  any  real  honesty  of  motive  in  a  matter 
of  this  kind.  A  teetotaler  must  be,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  a  pure,  moral,  upright,  and  thoroughly  religious 
man,  and  a  "  respectable  "  man,  too  ;  but  a  distiller 
must  be  the  very  reverse  in  every  particular  !  There- 
fore, obedient  to  these  vicious  prejudices  of  theirs,  none 
of  the  prohibition  writers,  who  pretend  to  keep  such  a 
fixed  eye  upon  the  well  being  of  society,  brought  for- 
ward their  schemes  and  projects  for  the  regeneration 
of  men,  as  they  deem  it  quite  practicable  to  redeem 
him,  but  let  the  golden  opportunity  pass  unimproved, 
because,  forsooth,  it  was  not  offered  by  somebody  on 
their  own  side  of  the  question  !  They  certainly  could 
not  have  objected  to  the  proposal  that  the  judges  se- 
lected were  either  partial  or  incompetent  men,  for  they 
were  such  persons  as  John  H.  Clifford,  formerly  Gov-. 
ernor  of  Massachusetts,  Rev.  Alexander  H.  Vinton,  the 
Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church  in  Boston,  but  at  present 
preaching  in  Philadelphia,  Nahum  Capen,  the  Post- 


A   THOUSAND   DOLLARS.  187 

master  of  Boston,  and  Peter  Cooper,  the  distinguished 
philanthropist  of  New  York,  and  the  munificent  founder 
of  the  Cooper  Institute  in  that  city.  These,  certainly, 
are  among  the  very  first  men  in  any  community,  and 
it  is  not  supposable  that  their  verdict,  after  giving  to 
the  Essays  sent  in  their  careful  examination,  would  be 
any  other  than  competent  and  impartial.  The  pre- 
mium offered,  too,  was  large  enough  to  enlist  the  best 
talent,  and  should  not  have  failed  to  call  out  that  from 
the  body  of  the  prohibition  party,  if,  as  they  professed, 
they  were  in  earnest  about  their  plans  to  redeem  the 
race  from  the  vice  and  evil  consequences  of  intemper- 
ance. But  their  prejudices  were  insuperable,  and  over- 
came every  thing  else. 

A  correspondence  was  held  between  Mr.  Barnard 
and  the  Assistant  District  Attorney  for  the  county  of 
Suffolk,  A.  0.  Brewster,  Esq.,  some  time  afterwards, 
in  which  the  whole  subject  treated  of  in  the  Essays  was 
discussed  ;  and  as  the  correspondence  between  these 
two  gentlemen  was  made  public  at  the  time,  and  pos- 
sesses much  interest  for  readers  generally,  we  append 
it  in  this  place.  We  may  be  allowed  to  add  further, 
that  we  have  ourselves  seen  the  essays  that  were  sent 
in  from  various  parts  of  the  country  in  competition  for 
the  prize,  respecting  the  merits  of  which  mention  is 
made  in  the  correspondence.  The  following  are  the 
letters :  — 


188  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

BOSTON,  December  15,  1858. 

John  M.  Barnard,  Esq.  Dear  Sir :  During  the  past 
year  various  and  repeated  inquiries  have  been  made  of 
me  about  the  offer,  made  by  you  a  year  or  two  since,  to 
give  a  premium  of  one  thousand  dollars  for  the  best 
essay  on  temperance  legislation.  If  I  remember  right, 
your  proposition  was  published  at  the  time,  and  an- 
swered by  various  writers  who  entered  the  field  as 
competitors  for  the  premium.  Have  you  any  objection 
to  acquaint  me  with  the  facts  relating  to  a  matter  of 
such  public  interest  ?  Perhaps,  on  the  whole,  the  bet- 
ter mode  is  to  communicate  through  the  columns  of 
the  press  the  award  of  the  committee,  to  whom  the 
essays  were  referred  with  full  power  to  approve  or  reject. 

My  object  in  dropping  you  this  note  is  to  solicit  full 
information  in  regard  to  the  line  of  argument  pursued 
by  the  writers,  and  to  receive  such  suggestions  as  are 
valuable  and  worthy  of  adoption.  The  public  mind,  too, 
is  still  at  sea  upon  a  question  of  paramount  interest. 

Can  we  have  a  better  law  than  the  one  now  on  our 
statute  book,  designed  to  regulate  the  manufacture, 
sale,  and  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  ? 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  competitors  for  the  pre- 
mium discussed  this  question  in  its  full  length  and 
breadth.  Will  you  give  to  the  public  the  award  of  the 
committee  ?  In  other  words,  who  got  the  premium  ? 
and  where  is  the  essay  ? 

I  am,  dear  sir,  your  ob't  servant, 

A.  0.  BREWSTER, 

22  Tremont  Row. 


A  THOUSAND  DOLLARS.  189 

BOSTON,  December  24,  1858. 

Col.  A.  0.  Brewster.  My  dear  Sir :  I  am  happy  to 
acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  15th  hist., 
making  inquiries  as  to  the  result  of  my  proposition  to 
give  one  thousand  dollars  for  the  best  essay  on  tem- 
perance legislation.  I  now  avail  myself  of  the  earliest 
opportunity  to  state  frankly  and  freely  such  suggestions 
as  occur  to  me  in  connection  with  this  matter. 

As  your  letter  is  decidedly  explicit  and  direct,  you 
will  of  course  pardon  me  for  a  little  directness  on  my 
part. 

The  offer  to  which  you  refer  was  made  public  in 
May,  1856,  and  was  a  "  premium  of  $1000  for  the  best 
essay  on  temperance  legislation,  and  outline  of  a  law." 
My  motives  for  this  offer  were  stated  at  the  time,  with 
a  view  to  invite  the  spirit  of  duty  in  the  statesman, 
and  to  advance  the  cause  of  temperance  in  a  reasonable 
and  practical  way.  No  limits  or  requisitions  were  pre- 
scribed as  to  the  number  of  pages,  but  intimating  a 
directness  of  aim  and  a  comprehensive  brevity.  All 
competitors  were  requested  to  send  their  productions, 
enveloped,  sealed,  and  directed  to  me,  on  or  before 
May  1,  1857,  after  which  I  would  place  them  in  the 
hands  of  the  judges  who  had  kindly  consented  to  serve, 
viz. :  Hon.  John  J.  Gilchrist,  late  Chief  Justice  of  the 
U.  S.  Court  of  Claims  ;  Hon.  John  H.  Clifford,  late 
Attorney  General  of  Massachusetts  ;  Eev.  A.  H.  Vin- 
ton,  of  Boston  ;  Hon.  Peter  Cooper,  of  New  York  city, 
and  Nahum  Capen,  Esq.,  Postmaster  of  Boston. 


190  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

In  a  few  months  following  my  proposal,  a  number  of 
communications  were  received,  which  continued  up  to 
the  period  limited,  when  they  reached  the  number  of 
forty  or  more.  Most  of  them  were  unnecessarily  long, 
prolix,  and  tedious ;  Job  himself  would  have  rebelled 
against  reading  them.  Others  were  more  practical  and 
comprehensive,  but  did  not  come  up  in  merit  to  the 
views  of  the  committee. 

To  prove  to  you  the  extreme  fanaticism  and  igno- 
rance which  pervade  the  minds  of  some  writers  upon 
temperance  reform,  I  will  here  state  as  an  illustration, 
that  one  of  the  writers  commenced  his  essay  with  a  sad 
recital  of  the  evils  of  intemperance  now  desolating  the 
land,  and  after  drawing  a  gloomy  picture  of  life,  pro- 
posed as  a  panacea  for  the  evils  an  outline  of  a  law, 
which,  among  other  remedies,  undertakes  to  make  all 
parents  criminally  liable  for  the  acts  of  their  children 
under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  (provided  that  the 
oifences  charged  against  them  are  the  result  of  intoxi- 
cation.) In  other  words,  an  honest  and  industrious 
mechanic,  the  father  of  many  children,  has  one  son 
addicted  to  intemperance ;  that  son  in  an  unhappy 
moment  engages  in  a  quarrel,  and  takes  the  life  of  a 
human  being ;  under  the  law,  the  father  is  to  be  held 
to  bail,  or  imprisoned,  and  in  due  course  of  time  is  to 
be  placed  at  the  bar  for  trial  on  a  charge  of  murder  or 
manslaughter. 

Imagine  such  a  law  on  our  statute  books.  And  this 
is  but  one  illustration  of  the  impracticable  views  of  our 
modern  over-zealous  reformers. 


A   THOUSAND   DOLLARS.  191 

Another  writer  opens  the  discussion  with  a  feeling 
and  eloquent  portrayal  of  the  miseries  of  intemperance, 
and  in  a  fervent  spirit  calls  upon  the  statesman  and 
legislator  to  come  to  the  rescue,  and  devise  some  means 
to  stop  this  tide  of  human  suffering.  What,  think  you, 
is  his  remedy  ?  He  condemns  the  Maine  Law,  pro- 
nounces all  sumptuary  laws  as  unjust  and  oppressive, 
but  proposes,  in  lieu  thereof,  sanitary  institutions  all 
over  the  State,  with  different  apartments  for  inebriates, 
and  to  be  supported  from  the  revenue  of  the  Common- 
wealth. He  argues  from  this  that  the  burden  of  tax- 
ation would  be  so  great  in  maintaining  these  hospitals, 
that  the  moral  influence  of  all  good  citizens  would  be 
directed  towards  the  suppression  (by  moral  suasion)  of 
the  free  use  of  intoxicating  liquors. 

Another  contributor,  in  an  earnest,  but  voluminous 
essay,  falls  back  upon  a  license  system  as  the  most 
effectual  one  to  meet  the  views  of  the  public. 

In  most  of  the  communications  there  is  a  want  of* 
harmony  and  unity  of  views.  No  two  writers  seem  to 
agree.  Extremes  meet.  Both  start  from  the  right 
place,  but  diverge  at  different  points.  It  has  been 
owing,  possibly,  to  the  impracticable,  visionary  views 
of  some,  and  the  too  cautious  conservatism  of  others, 
that  the  committee  failed  to  see  how  any  essay  on  the 
score  of  merit  was  entitled  to  the  prize. 

I  transmit,  for  your  perusal,  the  decision  lately  placed 
in  my  hands  by  the  committee :  — 


192  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

BOSTON,  December  12,  1858. 

Sir :  The  Essays  on  Temperance  Legislation  received 
by  you,  under  your  liberal  offer  of  a  premium  for  the 
best  discussion  of  that  subject,  having  been  submitted 
to  us,  we  are  constrained  to  say  that  no  one  of  them  is, 
in  our  judgment,  of  sufficient  merit  to  justify  us  in 
awarding  to  its  author  either  the  prize  or  the  preference. 
We  are  respectfully 

Your  ob't  servants, 

JOHN  H.  CLIFFORD, 
ALEX'R  H.  VINTON, 
NAHUM  CAPEN, 
PETER  COOPER. 
To  John  M.  Barnard,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Tliis  report,  brief  but  simple,  tells  the  whole  story, 
and  you  will  not  thank  me  for  further  comments. 

I  am  glad  that  you  have  written  me  about  this  mat- 
ter, as  the  public  is  entitled  to  know  its  finale. 

I  was  in  hopes,  when  I  made  the  offer,  that  it  was 
liberal  enough  to  arouse  the  best  talent  of  the  country, 
and  engage  the  attention  of  sound  thinking  men  to  dis- 
cuss this  question  in  a  broad,  wise,  and  comprehensive 
spirit.  The  present  law,  commonly  known  as  the 
;i  Nuisance  Act,"  has  failed  to  reach  the  difficulty.  It 
needs  modification  to  make  it  effective. 

No  two  men  in  our  community  better  understand 
this  than  Mr.  Cooley  and  yourself.  I  think  you  once 
told  me  that  you  experienced  great  trouble  in  procur- 
ing convictions  under  it,  and  intimated  that  the  number 
of  disagreements  by  juries  was  owing,  not  so  much  to 
its  alleged  unconstitutionality  as  to  other  vexed  and 


A  THOUSAND   DOLLARS.  193 

delicate  questions  involved.  You  have  no  difficulty 
with  prosecutions  based  upon  other  criminal  statutes ; 
and  why  is  it  that  the  liquor  law  is  so  inoperative  and 
void? 

I  know  of  no  one  abler  or  better  fitted  to  discuss  this 
subject  than  yourself;  and  why  not  enlighten  public 
opinion  upon  a  matter  so  deeply  interesting  ?  With 
your  large  experience,  and  varied  knowledge,  you  can 
readily  see  the  imperfections  of  our  impolitic  and  im- 
practicable statutes,  and  should  be  able  to  suggest  a 
remedy. 

In  these  observations  I  do  not  mean  to  hint  that  you, 
or  your  honored  associate,  Mr.  Cooley,  should  depart 
from  the  line  of  official  duty,  to  engage  in  the  discus- 
sion of  a  popular  question ;  and  yet,  who  better  com- 
petent to  advise  and  instruct  than  gentlemen  whose 
every-day  life  brings  them  into  contact  with  different 
minds  ? 

You  know  better  than  most  men  the  logic  of  the 
jury  box,  the  mode  of  reasoning,  the  prejudices  and 
partialities  of  juries,  their  willingness  to  exercise  the 
right  to  judge  the  law  as  well  as  the  fact ;  and  you 
can  easily  obviate  an  apparent  difficulty  by  making  the 
law  more  liberal  and  consistent,  but  none  the  less 
effective. 

Obliterate  the  odious  and  abominable  features  of  the 

law,  conceived  by  zealots  and   partisan  bigots ;  strike 

from  it  all  that  is  despotic  and  tyrannical ;  give  to  it 

consistency,  dignity,  and  sense,  with  its  full  measure 

17 


194  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

of  severity  of  punishment,  —  and  you  will  work  a 
lasting  and  permanent  good. 

I  am,  most  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  M.  BARNARD, 
No.  13  Temple  Street. 


AMERICAN  WINES.  195 


XXVII. 

AMERICAN    WINES. -PART   I. 

UNTIL  very  lately,  our  people  have  not  permitted 
themselves  to  think  of  the  possibility  of  such  a  thing ; 
but  it  is  now  as  fixed  as  any  other  fact  in  existence. 
We  are  yet  to  manufacture  all  our  own  wines,  and 
doubtless  export  wines  besides.  Adlum,  —  the  author 
of  a  "  Memoir  of  the  Cultivation  of  the  Vine  in  Amer- 
ica," published  in  1823,  —  said,  in  the  preface  of  his 
little  book,  "  A  desire  to  be  useful  to  my  countrymen 
has  animated  all  my  efforts,  and  given  a  stimulus  to  all 
my  exertions.  It  is  from  this  desire,  in  connection 
with  a  wish  to  satisfy  the  numerous  inquiries  that  have 
been  made  upon  the  subject,  that  I  have  been  led  to 
undertake  the  present  work,  which,  I  hope,  will  induce 
others  to  follow  my  example  in  cultivating  the  vine, 
and  be  the  means  of  spreading  a  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject among  my  fellow-citizens.  As  I  am  advancing  in 
years,  and  know  not  when  I  may  be  called  hence,  I  am 
solicitous  that  the  information  I  have  acquired  should 
not  die  with  me."  It  has  not.  These  precepts  of  Ad- 
lum, of  Dufour,  of  Longworth,  and  of  Fisher,  —  the 
pioneers  in  grape  culture  in  this  country,  —  have  not 
been  passed  over  or  forgotten.  They  have  proved 
themselves  as  true  and  as  worthy  patriots  as  any  this* 
country  has  ever  had. 


196  THE  EAMROD   BROKEN. 

Dufour,  though  not  an  American  by  birth,  says  of 
his*  travels  through  this  country  for  this  very  purpose, 
"  I  went  to  see  all  the  vines  that  I  could  hear  of,  even 
as  far  as  Kaskaskia,  on  the  borders  of  the  Mississippi 
River ;  because  I  was  told  by  an  inhabitant  of  that 
town,  whom  I  met  with  in  Philadelphia,  that  the 
Jesuits  had  there  a  very  successful  vineyard  when  that 
country  belonged  to  the  French,  and  were  afterwards 
ordered  by  the  French  government  to  destroy  it,  for 
fear  the  culture  of  the  grape  should  spread  in  America 
and  hurt  the  wine  trade  of  France"  !  The  volume  of 
Dufour  is  the  manual  of  the  vine-dresser  to-day. 

For  thirty  years  and  upwards,  Nicholas  Longworth, 
of  Cincinnati,  has  devoted  himself  to  the  culture  of  the 
grape  and  the  manufacture  of  wine,  in  the  Ohio  valley ; 
and  "  to  him,"  says  a  well-known  writer,  "  more  than 
to  any  other  man  in  the  "West,  we  are  indebted  for 
our  knowledge  in  grape  culture."  His  great  endeavor 
has  uniformly  tended  to  but  one  result,  namely,  to  pro- 
mote national  prosperity,  national  temperance,  and 
national  hilarity. 

Fisher,  who  passed  five  years  abroad,  in  France,  Ita- 
ly, and  Switzerland,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  informing 
himself  on  this  most  important  subject,  says,  in  relation 
to  temperance  in  those  countries,  "  I  have  passed  three 
years  in  France,  where  I  never  saw  a  drunken  French- 
man. Eighteen  months  in  Italy,  and,  in  that  time,  not 
an  Italian  intoxicated.  Nearly  two  years  in  Switzer- 
^  land,  of  which  I  cannot  say  the  same,  but  I  can  safely 
aver,  that  during  that  period,  I  did  not  see  twenty 


AMERICAN  WINES.  197 

drunken  men  ;  and  whenever  my  feelings  were  pained 
at  beholding  a  prostration  so  sad  over  better  principles, 
it  was  invariably  on  an  occasion  of  extraordinary  fes- 
tivity." And  the  same  writer  adds,  T^ith  a  vast  deal  of 
truth,  "  The  cultivation  of  the  vine  will  do  more  to- 
wards the  furtherance  of  this  object"  (the  overthrow 
of  intemperance)  "  than  a  host  of  non-consuming  res- 
olutions. On  all  efforts  shall  legislators  look  with  in- 
difference, and  withhold  from  the  moral  improvement 
of  the  community  the  aid  so  liberally  granted  to  rail- 
ways, and  canals,  and  sectional  improvements  ?  To 
the  system  that  should  banish  intemperance  from  our 
land  will  be  justly  due  a  conspicuous  rank  among  the 
improvements  of  the  age." 

It  is  true  that  wherever  the  vine  has  been  planted, 
and  now  flourishes,  there  live  a  happy  people.  The 
very  word  vineyard  starts  clusters  of  pleasant  and 
loving  associations.  There  is  poetry  in  the  word.  It 
suggests  plenty,  contentment,  sociability,  and  not  ex- 
cess. We  associate  excess,  in  this  country,  with  the 
strychnine  infusions  that  are  poured  down  diseased 
men's  throats,  kindling  a  fire  in  their  stomachs  that 
consumes  their  very  souls. 

Up  to  the  present  time,  the  State  of  Ohio  has  taken 
the  lead  in  this  great  vine-growing  movement  in  Amer- 
ica, and  from  this  point  it  is  likely  to  spread  and  take 
permanent  root  all  through  the  rich  slopes  of  the  West. 
Missouri  offers  unusual  facilities  and  attractions  for  the 
culture  of  the  vine,  which  are  made  still  more  valuable 
by  the  accession  of  populous  colonies  of  Germans  to  the 
17* 


198  THE   RAMROD  BROKEN. 

fertile  hill  sides  of  that  noble  State,  whose  habits  of 
industry  are,  of  all  others,  best  fitted  to  the  work.  The 
Germans,  like  the  Swiss,  make  notable  vine-dressers. 
In  California,  the  grape  has  already  been  cultivated 
with  surprising  success,  and  the  last  year's  product  was 
upwards  of  eight  millions  of  gallons.  It  is  predicted 
that  a  much  larger  breadth  of  land  will  be  planted  to 
the  vine  in  that  State  by  another  year,  and  that  the 
yield  in  the  immediate  future  will  be  enormous.  The 
climate  and  soil  combine  to  make  it  preeminently  a 
land,  in  parts,  for  the  extensive  culture  of  the  grape; 
and  it  is  nothing  to  hazard  to  say  that  it  will  in  a  very 
few  years  become  a  staple  article  in  the  long  list  of  her 
most  valuable  products.  Kentucky,  too,  has  done 
great  things  in  this  line,  and  promises  to  do  better. 

Buchanan,  a  reliable  authority  on  all  matters  con- 
nected with  the  growing  and  dressing  of  the  vine,  says, 
in  his  little  book  on  "  Grape  Culture  and  Wine  Mak- 
ing," that  the  year  1853  was  a  highly  favorable  year 
for  the  vine  in  Ohio,  about  six  hundred  and  fifty  gal- 
lons having  been  averaged  to  the  acre,  and,  in  some 
instances,  as  high  as  eight  hundred  and  nine  hundred 
gallons.  He  obtained  himself,  from  a  little  estate  of 
five  acres,  four  thousand  two  hundred  and  thirty-six 
gallons  ;  or,  at  the  rate  of  eight  hundred  and  forty- 
seven  gallons  per  acre.  Taking  the  country  through, 
however,  the  yield  that  year  came  up  to  about  four 
hundred  gallons  an  acre.  And  wine  selling  for  a  dol- 
lar a  gallon  at  the  press  !  A  gentleman  in  Kentucky 
states  that,  from  his  own  experience,  wine  can  be  made 


AMERICAN  WINES.  199 

as  cheap  in  Kentucky  as  in  France  or  Germany ;  as 
cheap,  in  fact,  as  cider  ;  and  that,  at  fifteen  cents  a  gal- 
lon, it  will  pay  a  better  profit  than  the  generality  of 
staple  productions.  And  he  sets  about  proving  his  as- 
sertions in  the  following  way  : 

Pour  hundred  gallons  of  wine,  at  fifteen  cents,  is  six- 
ty dollars.  An  acre  of  the  best  land  in  hemp  will  aver- 
age six  hundred  weight ;  six  hundred  weight  of  hemp, 
at  five  dollars,  is  thirty  dollars;  —  leaving  a  balance  in 
favor  of  the  vineyard  of  thirty  dollars,  or  one  hundred 
per  cent.  One  acre  of  corn  will  average  fifty  bushels, 
worth  thirty  cents  per  bushel ;  fifty  bushels,  at  thirty 
cents,  is  fifteen  dollars ;  —  leaving  a  balance  in  favor  of 
the  vineyard  of  forty-five  dollars. 

The  same  writer  further  states,  that  the  tillage  of  the 
vineyard  and  making  wine  is  not  so  laborious,  nor  near 
so  expensive,  per  acre,  as  the  tillage  and  labor  of  secur- 
ing the  products  of  an  acre  of  corn  or  hemp.  If  we 
can  get  one  dollar  a  gallon  for  wine  when  ready  for 
market,  or  fifty  cents  per  gallon  from  the  press,  the 
products  of  the  gold  mines  of  California  would  be  small 
in  comparison  with  the  receipts  from  wine-growing  in 
any  single  State  like  Ohio  or  Kentucky.  If  you  plant 
out  a  vineyard  of  a  hundred  acres,  the  products,  at  fifty 
cents  a  gallon,  amount  to  twenty  thousand  dollars  per 
annum.  A  man  having  five  acres,  which  he  could 
manage  himself,  would  find  them  more  profitable  than 
a  Kentucky  farm  of  two  hundred  acres,  with  three 
negroes  to  cultivate  it. 

Of  the  several  varieties  of  native  American  grapes, 


200  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

those  that  have  hitherto  proved  themselves  the  most 
prolific,  and  at  the  same  time  the  best  producers  of 
wine,  are  the  Isabellas  and  the  Catawbas.  A  gentle- 
man near  New  York  planted  a  single  acre  with  the  Isa- 
bella vine,  and  the  product  he  estimates  at  four  tons 
of  grapes  per  annum.  The  vine  grows  more  luxuri- 
antly in  the  Southern  than  in  the  Northern  States. 
The  famous  Scuppernong  sometimes  covers  acres  of 
ground  with  a  single  vine,  the  circumference  of  whose 
stem  is  measured  by  feet  rather  than  inches,  and  the 
weight  of  the  grapes  by  tons. 

Wine,  —  pure  wine,  such  as  this  country  is  abundant- 
ly capable  of  producing,  —  is  both  a  powerful  and  prac- 
tical argument  for  temperance,  and  a  necessity  among 
the  masses.  We  should  have  more  of  it.  It  should  be 
made  just  as  free  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it ;  so  cheap, 
in  fact,  that  not  even  the  poorest  should  be  deprived  of 
its  blessings.  As  a  potent  means  of  eradicating  the 
vicious  use  of  fiery  liquors,  it  is  capable  of  doing,  and 
destined  to  do,  a  great  work  in  the  future.  This  we 
seriously  believe.  On  looking  at  statistics,  —  those 
only  truth-tellers  for  persons  who  would  get  at  the  fun- 
damental laws  of  political  economy,  —  we  find  that  in 
those  countries  where  wine  has  been  driven  out  from 
common  use  by  high  duties,  worse  liquors  have  come 
in  to  supply  their  place ;  the  more  potent,  and  gener- 
ally the  viciously  adulterated  liquors,  have  been  con- 
sumed in  a  more  than  corresponding  degree.  When 
England  was  known  to  possess  a  population  of  twenty- 
four  millions,  she  consumed  twenty-eight  million  gal- 


AMERICAN   WINES.  201 

Ions  of  spirits,  exclusive  of  ale,  porter,  and  beer. 
France,  however,  with  a  population  o/  thirty-three  mil- 
lions, consumed  but  fifteen  million  of  her  own  brandies, 
and  of  these  a  great  part  was  employed  in  manufactures, 
in  strengthening  wines  for  shipment,  and  in  preserving 
fruits,  and  preparing  confections.  Whereas,  in  the 
United  States,  we  manufactured  at  the  same  time  eigh- 
ty-six million  gallons  of  whiskey,  spirits,  and  ale,  for 
home  consumption  only  !  This  is  a  terrible  recital,  and 
publishes  to  the  world  a  terrible  truth.  If  wines  were 
at  all  common  with  us,  —  if  the  duties  on  them  did  not 
operate  to  their  practical  exclusion  from  common  use, 
or,  what  is  equivalent,  if  we  could  raise  wines  enough 
of  our  own  to  expel  these  stronger  and  more  harjnful 
drinks  from  popular  use,  —  any  reflecting  mind  can  at 
once  perceive  what  a  blessing  it  would  prove,  in  all  re- 
spects, to  our  population ! 

It  is  this  same  matter  of  duties  that  makes  so  much 
trouble.  Abolish  them,  and  wines  would  be  more  com- 
mon, while  doctored  and  diluted  spirits  would  be  ban- 
ished from  such  general  use.  A  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  three  times  as  much  wine  was  drunk  in 
England  as  is  drunk  there  now.  The  grape  in  Europe 
is  not  indigenous  —  that  is,  does  not  belong  to  the  soil. 
The  entire  grape  stock  is  of  Asiatic  origin,  and  it  is 
universally  believed  to  have  had  its  rise  in  the  Orient. 
The  Phoenicians  introduced  it  into  the  islands  of  the 
Archipelago,  into  Greece,  and  into  Sicily ;  afterwards 
into  Italy,  and  the  territory  about  Marseilles.  From 
this  point  it  extended  over  the  whole  of  the  south  of 


202  THE  EAMROD  BROKEN. 

i 

France ;  and  it  is  said  by  one  writer,  that  the  Johnny 
Crapeaus  had  thqjr  claret  and  olives  in  the  times  of 
Solon  and  Sappho,  and  drank  to  the  health  of  Neb- 
uchadnezzar when  he  captured  Jerusalem,  June  9, 
587  B.  C. 

The  vine  was  introduced  into  Switzerland  in  the  days 
of  Julius  Caesar,  by  a  blacksmith  of  Helvetia.  The 
slips  were  brought  from  Italy.  The  vine  made  its  way 
into  Spain  and  Portugal  subsequently  to  the  Christian 
era.  But  in  tracing  up  the  history  of  the  vine  in 
Europe,  nothing  is  more  apparent  than  the  fact  that  it 
is  not  a  native  of  the  soil,  but  of  Asiatic  origin.  And 
in  the  process  of  propagation  through  such  a  succession 
of  centuries,  it  has  been  at  length  overtaken  with  a 
disease  that  seems  to  baffle  all  attempts  to  eradicate  it. 
The  reader  is  perfectly  familiar  with  the  distress  which 
prevailed  but  a  few  years  since  in  Italy,  in  Prance,  and 
in  Madeira,  in  consequence  of  the  prevalence  of  the 
oidium,  or  vine  disease  ;  and  it  is  established  pretty 
thoroughly  that  that  disease  is  a  natural  result  of  the 
long  and  steady  culture  of  the  vine  from  one  particular 
stock.  The  consequence  is,  the  stock  must  be  replen- 
ished —  infused  with  a  new  vigor  and  vitality.  How 
shall  that  be  done  ?  is  the  important  question.  It  is 
certain  that  the  Asiatic  vine  yields  to  certain  climatic, 
and  other  influences,  in  Europe ;  and  that  resort 
must  be  had  to  the  original  stock  again,  as  it  was  at 
first  found  wild  on  the  mountain  sides,  or  else  there 
must  occur  an  importation  and  general  planting  out  of 
American  vines.  And  even  then  the  plan  may  fail,  as 


AMERICAN  WINES.  203 

it  has  failed  already.  What,  then,  is  to  be  done? 
Whither  is  the  world  to  look  for  its  supply  of  wines  ? 
Manifestly,  to  our  own  productive  slopes  and  hill  sides, 
where  the  grape  is  indigenous,  and  where  its  products 
surpass  the  wildest  calculations  of  all  who  have  had  to 
do  with  the  vine  before. 

It  is  in  relation  to  this  very  point  that  we  wish  to 
remark  further  in  another  chapter. 


204  THE  EAMROD   BROKEN. 


XXVIII. 

AMERICAN  WINES. -PART  II. 

IT  is  stated  that  the  Northmen,  who  are  the  reputed 
discoverers  of  America,  when  they  first  landed  on  the 
island  where  Newport  now  stands,  named  it  "  Vine 
Land."  And  with  propriety ;  for  the  vines  were  grow- 
ing all  over  the  banks,  down  to  the  water's  edge.  Sir 
John  Hawkins,  a  knight  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  speaks  of 
drinking  a  wine  from  grapes  grown  in  Florida,  in  the 
year  1564  —  the  same  year  in  which  Shakspeare  was 
born.  Ealph  Stone  wrote  in  1585  of  the  grapes  of 
Virginia,  that  they  were  "  grapes  of  such  greatnesse, 
yet  wilde,  as  France,  Spain,  nor  Italic  have  no  greater." 
As  early  as  the  year  1620,  vineyards  were  planted  in 
Virginia.  The  wine  produced  from  grapes  native  to 
Delaware  was  much  praised  as  early  as  1648.  "  A 
second  draught,"  says  the  quaint  writer  of  that  day, 
"  four  months  old,  will  foxe  [intoxicate]  a  reasonable 
pate."  In  the  year  1683,  William  Perm  made  the  at- 
tempt to  establish  vineyards  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Philadelphia.  The  Jesuits  set  out  their  vineyards  at 
Kaskaskia,  on  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  earlier  than 
this.  Wines  were  produced  by  the  French  at  Fort 
Duquesne,  now  Pittsburg,  in  the  year  1758,  and  even 
a  little  previous  to  that  time.  Volney,  who  visited  this 


AMERICAN   WINES.  205 

country  in  1796,  speaks  of  drinking  a  native  wine  at 
Gallipolis,  Ohio.  Dufour,  in  the  same  year,  speaks  of  a 
Frenchman  at  Marietta,  on  the  Ohio,  who  was  making 
several  barrels  a  year  out  of  the  wild  grapes,  known 
by  the  name  of  "  Sand  Grapes."  "  I  drank,"  said  he, 
"  some  of  the  wine  when  about  four  months  old,  and 
found  it  like  the  wine  produced  in  the  vicinity  of 
Paris,  in  France,  if  not  better." 

Early  in  the  present  century,  the  vineyards  at  Spring 
Mills,  near  Philadelphia,  and  the  Swiss  settlement  at 
Vevay,  Indiana,  were  established.  Several  varieties  of 
foreign  grapes  were  tried  at  Spring  Mills,  but  soon 
abandoned  for  those  that  were  native  to  the  soil.  The 
"  Schuylkill "  succeeded  there  admirably.  This  was 
replanted  by  the  Swiss  colony  that  settled  Vevay,  un- 
der the  name  of  the  "  Cape  Grape,"  and  flourished 
there  for  many  years.  The  wine  produced  from  it, 
however,  was  but  indifferent  when  compared  with  that 
yielded  by  the  Isabellas  and  the  Catawbas.,  which  are 
destined  in  the  immediate  future  to  give  us  a  great 
name  as  a  wine-growing  and  wine-producing  nation. 
These  two  vines,  both  indigenous  to  our  soil,  form  the 
great  channels  through  which  a  vast  amount  of  our 
national  wealth  and  prosperity  is  yet  to  flow.  Their 
names  are  yet  to  be  remembered,  as  performing  better 
service  in  weaning  our  people  from  the  love  of  adulter- 
ated spirits  and  forming  their  tastes  on  true  principles 
of  temperance,  than  the  names  of  all  the  much-vaunted 
prohibition  rantipoles  that  ever  stirred  up  peaceful 
communities  to  unhappy  strife. 
18 


206  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

The  exact  number  of  vines  that  spring  native  in  our 
soil  cannot  be  counted  ;  they  are,  we  might  as  well 
call  it,  incalculable.  Since  such  vast  tracts  of  territory 
have  been  added  to  our  national  domain,  we  have 
hardly  given  that  attention  to  the  discovery  of  such 
treasures  which  the  subject  truly  demands.  The  nat- 
uralist has  years  of  close  labor  and  study  before  him 
in  this  field  alone.  Henderson  says,  that  in  Europe, 
"  the  climate  most  congenial  to  the  culture  of  the  vine 
extends  from  the  35th  to  the  50th  degrees  of  north  lat- 
itude ;  and  it  is  between  these  points  that  the  most  cel- 
ebrated vineyards,  and  the  countries  richest  in  wine,  are 
placed."  This  same  rule  appears  to  be  applicable  to 
our  own  continent ;  it  is  exactly  between  the  same 
parallels  that  the  vine  flourishes  best  in  America. 
And  within  these  very  limits  there  is  scarcely  a  State 
that  has  not  a  native  vine  of  its  own  —  not  from  the 
Rio  Grande  to  Canada,  nor  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  With  perfect  propriety,  therefore,  might  the 
early  Northmen  discoverers  name  America  the  "  Vine 
Land."  The  "  Catawba "  is  the  grape  mostly  raised 
in  California,  which  they  call  the  "  Sweetwater."  The 
"  Mustang  "  and  "  El  Paso  "  are  the  peculiar  grapes  of 
Texas.  De  Bow's  Review  says  of  the  valley  of  El  Paso, 
in  which  the  latter  is  raised,  that  it  stretches  midway 
between  Santa  Fe  and  Chihuahua,  and  is  some  twenty- 
two  miles  in  length,  extending  from  the  Falls  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  on  the  north,  to  the  Presidio,  on  the  south, 
and  is  a  continuous  orchard  and  vineyard,  embracing 
and  sustaining  a  population  of  about  eight  thousand. 


AMERICAN   WINES.  207 

There  are  annually  manufactured  in  this  valley  not 
less  than  two  hundred  thousand  gallons  of  perhaps 
the  richest  and  best  wine  in  the  world,  which  is  worth 
always  two  dollars  a  gallon.  They  are  pronounced  far 
superior  in  richness,  and  flavor,  and  pleasantness  of 
taste  to  any  thing  of  the  kind  to  be  met  with  in  the 
valley  of  the  Rhine  or  on  the  sunny  hills  of  France. 

The  great  Mustang  grape  of  Texas  is  also  said  to  be 
a  grape  of  superior  wine-producing  quality.  It  is  said 
by  French  cultivators  to  be  the  port  wine  grape,  of  a 
very  superior  quality  and  yield.  The  sea  islands,  that 
fringe  the  coast  from  Norfolk  to  the  Florida  reefs,  are 
laden  with  vines,  and  clotted  with  the  purpling  fruit. 
Florida  abounds  in  this  luscious  product ;  Alabama  is 
already  bestowing  serious  attention  on  the  grape  ;  the 
woods  of  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Arkansas  stagger 
under  the  loads  of  rich  fruit  that  hang  from  the  prolific 
native  vines ;  Texas  has  a  countless  variety  of  native 
grapes,  and  so  has  California;  and  when  we  come  back  to 
North  Carolina,  we  come  to  the  natal  soil  of  the  Isabella 
and  the  Catawba,  as  well  as  the  Scuppernong  —  a  fact 
that  should  constitute  glory  enough  for  any  single  State. 
Virginia  holds  out  a  great  number  of  inducements  for 
the  culture  of  the  vine,  and  upon  her  soil  the  Catawba 
brings  forth  a  wine  of  a  distinct  flavor  from  that  pro- 
duced by  the  same  vine  in  Ohio.  There  is  certainly 
wild  and  waste  land  enough  in  Virginia  that  is  pecu- 
liarly adapted  to  the  growth  of  the  vine,  especially 
of  the  Catawba ;  and  the  time  may  not  be  far  distant 
when  this  most  important  branch  of  industry  will  be 


208  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

pursued  with  astonishing   success  in  that  noble   old 
State. 

Of  Ohio  and  Missouri  wines  we  have  already  spoken. 
They  are  supplanting  in  our  great  markets  the  im- 
ported wines  of  France  and  Italy,  even  at  the  same 
prices  per  gallon.  Vine  growing  in  the  Ohio  valley  is 
Nwhat  people  nowadays  call  an  "institution;"  in  other 
words,  it  has  grown  up  from  an  experiment  into  a 
great  business.  Terraces  of  vines  rise  above  terraces, 
all  laden  with  dark  foliage  and  heavy  clusters  of  fruit. 
The  red  soil  of  the  banks  is  completely  concealed  by 
the  beautiful  covering  which  the  graceful  vine  has 
thrown  over  it.  It  is  in  Ohio,  thus  far,  that  the  Ca- 
tawba  has  chiefly  excelled,  and  in  Norfolk,  that  the 
Isabella  has  especially  betrayed  its  matchless  qualities. 
The  culture  of  the  grape  in  Pennsylvania  proved  but  a 
temporary  success,  and  after  a  time  public  interest  in 
it  began  to  subside ;  but  there  are  present  signs  of  its 
reviving  again,  and  that  the  Quaker  State  will  yet  man- 
ifest the  ancient  interest  in  the  work  of  vine  growing. 
The  vine  has  also  been  cultivated  with  decided  success 
in  New  Jersey,  in  certain  localities  ;  and  so  it  has  in 
Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Michigan.  But  of  all  the  other 
States  thus  far,  Missouri  promises  to  be  the  most  active 
competitor  with  Ohio  in  the  production  of  wines,  al- 
though it  still  remains  to  be  seen  what  California  is 
able  and  ready  to  do.  Indiana  is  to  be  considered  as 
much  a  pioneer  in  the  growing  of  the  vine  as  Ohio, 
for  there  was  first  planted  the  Vevay  colony  of  Swiss 
emigrants. 


AMERICAN   WINES.  209 

In  Missouri,  in  the  year  1852,  the  vineyards  at  Herr- 
mann embraced  some  forty  or  fifty  acres  only  ;  three 
years  later,  there  were  not  less  than  five  hundred  acres 
under  cultivation  in  that  locality,  not  including  a  great 
many  more  in  the  interior  of  the  'State.  Six  prizes 
were  awarded  to  vine  growers  of  Missouri,  at  the  New 
York  Crystal  Palace  exhibition,  for  samples  of  superior 
native  wines,  both  Isabella  and  Catawba,  still  and 
sparkling.  Of  these  two  grapes,  the  Catawba  seems  to 
be  the  favorite  in  Missouri,  as  it  likewise  is  in  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee.  In  the  St.  Louis  market,  we  are  told 
that  the  native  wines  are  rapidly  supplanting  all  im- 
ported and  foreign  wines,  and  driving  them  out  of  the 
market  altogether.  The  wines  set  before  the  guests  at 
the  hotels  there,  are  generally  produced  in  the  State 
itself,  or  at  least  in  this  country. 

Ohio  first  produced  a  pure  native  wine,  and  to  her 
belongs  all  the  honor.  There,  scientific  culture  of  the 
grape  and  scientific  treatment  of  the  grape  juice  have 
united  to  place  before  the  world  a  product  of  which 
the  whole  country  may  reasonably  feel  proud.  Within 
a  circuit  of  twenty  miles  around  Cincinnati,  there  were 
raised  in  the  year 

1848,  .         .         .         .  34,000  gallons. 

1849,  (a  very  bad  year  for  rot,)       36,000      " 

1852,  .         .         .         .  125,000      « 

1853,  ....  340,000      « 
We  have  not  the  figures  for  later  years,  or  we  might 

bring  down  the  statement  to  the  year  before  last.     In 
1854,  however,  the  crop  was  a  short  one,  in  consequence 
18* 


210  THE   EAMROD   BROKEN. 

of  a  cold  and  backward  spring,  and  excessive  rains ; 
yet,  to  compensate  for  this,  there  was  a  largely  in- 
creased number  of  cultivators  of  the  vine,  which  of 
course  caused  an  increased  crop  of  fruit.  Speaking  of 
American  wines  in  general,  the  patent  office  report  of 
1854  states  that  their  value  exceeded,  for  that  year, 
the  value  of  the  tobacco  crop,  and  proves  the  statement 
by  the  figures.  One  can  readily  infer  from  this  to 
what  a  state  of  forwardness  the  cultivation  of  the  vine 
has  reached  by  this  time. 

One  thing  is  certain  —  that  the  growing  of  the  grape 
is  destined  to  become,  and  in  not  many  years  from  this 
time  either,  one  of  the  largest  and  most  important  in- 
terests of  America.  We  shall  make  all  our  wines,  and 
export  them  beside.  We  shall  thus  drive  out  intem- 
perance from  the  land  more  rapidly  and  effectually 
than  by  all  the  prohibitory  laws  that  may  be  thought  of. 
And  it  rejoices  us,  above  all,  to  feel  assured  that  men 
are  now  engaging  in  this  great  work  with  a  zeal  and 
energy  that  promise  perfect  success  in  the  future. 


INTOXICATING   FOOD.  211 


XXIX. 

INTOXICATING    FOOD. 

IT  is  a  fact  with  which  all  scientific  men  are  familiar, 
that  the  intoxicating  element  can  be  extracted  from  the 
food  man  eats,  provided  circumstances  and  conditions 
are  rightly  adjusted  for  it,  as  well  as  from  the  liquors 
that  have  been  already  expressed  for  this  very  purpose. 
For  example,  a  person  who  has  been  either  wholly  or 
partially  fasting  for  a  long  time  on  the  wreck  of  a  ves- 
sel, in  the  wilderness,  or  on  a  desert,  will  become  in- 
toxicated by  partaking  of  almost  any  kind  of  nutritive 
food ;  and  hence  it  is  generally  administered  to  such 
very  sparingly.  We  can  find  numberless  cases  of  indi- 
viduals on  wrecks,  who,  on  drinking  the  warm  blood  of 
an  animal,  or  even  of  a  slain  companion,  became  drunk 
and  crazy,  and  fell  into  the  sea.  The  Scotchman  takes 
his  whiskey  as  food  just  as  the  Englishman  takes  his 
roast  beef  and  ale,  or  the  wild  Arab  his  dish  of  snails. 

The  accompanying  article,  full  of  the  largest  possible 
interest  for  the  readers  of  this  volume,  is  extracted  from 
a  recent  number  of  Dickens's  Household  Words,  a 
well-known  English  publication  ;  and,  as  it  shows  so 
graphically  the  great  variety  of  food,  as  well  as  drink, 
used  by  different  nations,  one  will  not  fail  to  observe 
that  the  Abyssinian  gets  drunk  on  raw  meat  and  warm 


212  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

blood  just  as  easily  as  the  Yankee  inebriate  does  on 
new  rum,  or  the  Turk,  arid  —  v/e  are  sorry  to  say  it 
—  the  modern  temperance  man,  on  opium!  The  arti- 
cle in  question  is  as  follows :  — 


"  Nothing  is  more  variable  than  national  diet,  except 
it  be  national  appetite.  An  Italian  is  content  with  a 
handful  of  bread  and  grapes,  but  an  Esquimaux  will 
devour  twenty  pounds  of  flesh  in  a  day ;  a  Hindoo  picks 
up  a  few  spoonfuls  of  rice  between  sunrise  and  sunset ; 
and  a  Russian  Tartar  will  eat,  in  the  twenty-four  hours, 
forty  pounds  of  meat.  Nay,  a  Tartar  mentioned  by 
Captain  Cochrane  in  his  Travels,  consumed  in  that 
time  the  hind  quarters  of  a  large  ox,  twenty  pounds  of 
fat,  and  a  proportionate  quantity  of  melted  butter  for 
drink ;  and  three  of  the  same  tribe  —  the  Yakuti  — 
think  nothing  of  polishing  off  a  reindeer  at  a  meal.  In 
London  and  New  York  the  average  consumption  of 
meat  is  half  a  pound  to  each  person  daily ;  in  Paris  it 
is  one  sixth  of  a  pound,  with  a  lower  fraction  still  for 
the  villages  and  country ;  yet  the  Irishman's  bone  and 
muscle  are  elaborated  from  potatoes,  not  from  flesh ; 
and  the  brawny  Highlander  builds  up  his  huge  mem- 
bers from  porridge,  kail,  and  whiskey.  So  that  meat  is 
not  absolutely  essential  even  to  Northmen ;  when,  by  a 
little  unconscious  chemistry  they  supply  efficient  sub- 
stitutes, tailing  off  by  units  the  various  properties  con- 
centrated in  honest  beef  and  mutton. 

"Pood    is   very   unequally  distributed   among  us. 


INTOXICATING   FOOD.  213 

There  is  the  poor  man,  who  can  never  give  his  children 
a  hearty  meal ;  and  there  is  the  rich  man,  gorged  with 
unimaginable  luxuries ;  on  the  one  side  Lazarus,  with 
a  hunger  never  sated  ;  on  the  other  Dives,  who,  be- 
tween the  ages  of  ten  and  twenty,  consumes  forty  wag- 
on loads  of  superfluous  meat  and  drink,  at  the  cost  of 
seven  thousand  pounds,  according  to  the  calculations 
of  Sydney  Smith. 

"  But  even  more  varied  than  amount  is  kind.  There 
is  no  limit  to  the  odd  dainties  affected  by  different  peo- 
ple. The  New  Brunswickers  find  a  special  charm  in 
the  moufle,  or  loose  nose  of  the  moose  deer.  Sharks' 
fins  and  fish-maws,  unhatched  ducks  and  chickens,  sea 
slugs  and  birds'  nests,  are  all  prized  by  the  omnivorous 
Chinese.  The  Esquimaux  revels  in  the  foreign  luxury 
of  a  purser's  candle ;  and  the  Abyssinian  intoxicates 
himself  with  raw  meat  and  warm  blood ;  which  are  as 
intoxicating  in  their  way  as  ardent  spirits.  Paris  has 
lately  gone  mad  about  horse  flesh ;  and  in  the  Exhibi- 
tion of  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-one,  a  Monsieur 
Brocchieri  showed  and  sold  delicious  cakes,  patties,  and 
bon-bons  of  bullocks'  blood ;  rivalling  the  famed  mar- 
rons  glaces,  or  baptismal  dragees,  of  the  confiseries  of 
the  Boulevards.  This  seems  to  us  almost  the  triumph 
of  the  art. 

"Meat  biscuits,  made  in  Texas  for  the  use  of  the 
American  navy,  were  also  exhibited.  They  are  like 
light-colored  sugar  cakes  in  appearance.  One  pound 
of  meat  biscuit  contains  rather  more  nutriment  than 
five  pounds  of  ordinary  meat.  Portable  soup  is  another 


214  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

matter  of  culinary  condensation,  wherein  nutritive 
power  is  out  of  all  proportion  to  bulk ;  and  pemmican, 
so  well  known  to  arctic  voyagers,  is  again  a  condensa- 
tion of  solid  meat  finely  ground,  then  mixed  with 
sugar,  fat,  and  currants.  The  Siamese  dry  elephants' 
flesh,  as  Germany  hangs  her  beef  and  pork ;  Cuba  feeds 
her  slaves  on  dried  meat  imported  in  enormous  quanti- 
ties from  Buenos  Ayres  and  the  United  States,  and,  all 
through  America,  the  trade  in  this  article  is  brisk  and 
lucrative,  extending  even  to  Europe,  which  imports 
and  consumes  a  goodly  quantity  to  her  share. 

"The  extreme  north  presents,  perhaps,  the  oddest 
specimens  of  luxuries  in  food.  Blubber,  the  unrumi- 
nated  food  of  reindeer  serving  as  an  accompanying 
salad ;  whales'  skin,  cut  into  cubes,  black  as  ebony, 
and  tasting  like  cocoa-nut ;  whales'  gum,  with  the  bone 
adhering,  not  unlike  cream  cheese  in  flavor,  and  called 
Tuski  sugar  —  these  were  some  of  the  chief  dishes  at  a 
Tuski  banquet ;  while  at  a  feast  given  by  some  respect- 
able Greenlanders  were  half  raw  and  putrid  seals' 
flesh,  putrid  whales'  tail,  preserved  crowberries  mixed 
with  reindeer's  chyle,  and  preserved  crowberries  mixed 
with  train  oil.  "Walrus  is  good  eating.  It  is  like 
coarse  beef ;  and  walrus  liver,  raw,  is  a  dish  on  which 
to  grow  poetical.  Frozen  seal  is  excellent  as  a  stand- 
by in  travelling  ;  and  putrid  seal,  which  has  been  buried 
under  the  grass  all  the  summer,  is  a  winter's  special 
charm.  The  reindeer's  maw  is  made  into  a  dish  called 
nerukak,  or  the  eatable,  and  sent  about,  as  presents  of 
game  or  fruit  might  be  with  us.  The  entrails  of  the 


INTOXICATING   FOOD.  215 

rypeu,  mixed  with  fresh  train  oil  and  berries,  make 
another  favorite  dish;  and  the  Greenlander's  winter 
preserves  are  crake  berries,  angelica,  and  eggs  in  every 
stage  of  incubatory  progress,  flung  all  together  into  a 
sack  of  seal  skin,  which  is  then  filled  up  with  train  oil. 
An  Esquimaux  will  eat  his  sledge  —  when  it  is  made 
of  dried  salmon  sewed  between  two  skins ;  the  cross- 
pieces  being  reindeer  bones.  This  is  not  so  marvellous 
as  it  seems  to  be :  it  is  not  quite  like  feeding  off  a  one- 
horse  chaise  or  clarence  with  C  springs ;  but  it  must 
be  a  curious  sight  to  see  a  party  turn  out  and  make  a 
meal  of  their  carriage.  Reindeer  is  the  great  delight 
of  the  Esquimaux  —  when  he  can  get  it ;  and  frozen 
reindeer,  eaten  raw,  is  better,  to  his  taste,  than  all  the 
royal  venison  ever  cooked  for  royal  feasts. 

"  Keeping  for  a  while  among  the  cetacea,  we  find  that 
the  manatus,  or  sea  calf,  gives  a  white,  delicate  flesh, 
like  young  pork ;  a  lean  or  fibrous  part  like  very  red 
beef;  and  fat,  which  is  like  hog's  lard,  with  an  excep- 
tional portion  lying  between  the  entrails  and  the  skin, 
like  almond  oil  in  taste,  and  an  excellent  substitute  for 
butter.  The  tail  is  the  titbit,  and  is  covered  with  a 
fat  of  firmer  consistence  and  more  delicate  flavor  than 
that  on  the  body.  But  the  manatus  is  too  human  to 
be  pleasant.  '  It  appears  horrible,'  says  Mr.  Lund  Sim- 
mons, in  his  Curiosities  of  Food,  <  to  chew  and  swallow 
the  flesh  of  an  animal  which  holds  its  young  (it  has 
never  more  than  one  at  a  litter)  to  its  breast  —  which 
is  formed  exactly  like  that  of  a  woman  —  with  paws 
resembling  human  hands.'  The  tongue  of  the  sea  lion 


216  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

(jphoca  jubata)  is  preferred  by  some  to  ox  tongue  ;  and 
the  heart  is  said  to  be  equal  to  roast  calf's  heart.  The 
walrus  has  a  tongue,  a  heart,  and  a  liver,  all  service- 
able and  palatable,  though  we  think  the  meat  coarse 
and  strong ;  the  female  sea  bear  is  like  lamb,  and  its 
cub  the  very  counterpart  of  roast  pig.  Seal  flesh  we 
think  strong  and  oily  ;  but  we  have  already  taken  the 
Greenlander's  opinion  on  it.  The  black  skin  of  the 
whale,  too,  we  have  tasted,  and  found  its  ebony  cubes 
with  the  cocoa-nut  flavor  simply  delicious,  but  its 
coarse,  red  flesh  like  inferior  meat.  Porpoise,  or  sea 
pig,  is  not  to  be  despised  by  British  sailors  suffering 
from  salt  junk  and  scurvy  ;  but  it  is  not  much  sought 
after  now,  though  in  the  days  when  peacocks  in  their 
pride,  swans,  and  herons  were  at  English  tables,  por- 
poises, or  sea  pigs,  had  their  place  of  honor  there  as 
well.  All  sea  things  have  the  recommendable  quality 
of  being  highly  iodized.  This  is  one  of  the  virtues  of 
cod  liver  oil ;  one  of  the  reasons  why  sea-side  air  is  so 
good  for  the  scrofulous  and  consumptive,  and  almost 
the  sole  benefit  to  be  found  in  the  Iceland  moss,  once 
so  famous  as  a  specific  against  consumption.  Isinglass 
has  also  a  fishy  origin.  The  court  plaster  of  the  chem- 
ists' shops  is  isinglass  and  balsam  spread  on  silk.  Ca- 
viare is  the  dried  roe  or  salted  spawn  of  fish  ;  the  black, 
which  is  the  best,  comes  from  the  sturgeon  ;  the  red  is 
from  the  gray  mullet  and  the  carp.  Botargo  is  a  kind 
of  caviare  made  from  the  spawn  of  the  red  mullet,  and 
of  great  esteem  in  Sicily ;  the  roe  of  the  pollock  makes 
commendable  bread,  and  the  roe  of  the  methy  (eoilia 


INTOXICATING   FOOD.  217 

maculosa)  can  be  baked  into  biscuits,  which  are  used 
in  the  fur  countries  as  tea  bread. 

"  In  Beloochistan  the  cattle  are  fed  on  a  compound 
of  dates  and  dried  fish ;  the  inhabitants  living  almost 
entirely  on  fish  ;  and  we  here,  in  England,  fling  hun- 
dreds of  pounds  of  sprats  and  other  fish  upon  our  fields 
to  fertilize  the  land,  poison  the  air,  and  deprive  some 
hungry  thousands  of  a  dinner.  The  Atlantic  tunny  is 
like  veal,  but  drier  and  firmer  ;  and  the  sturgeon,  so 
prized  by  Greece  and  Rome,  is  also  of  the  veal  type  ; 
that  is,  like  flesh  without  blood.  The  sharp-nosed  stur- 
geon is  like  beef,  very  coarse,  rank,  and  unsavory. 
The  shark  is  dry  and  acid.  Havana  is  the  only  place 
where  shark  is  openly  sold  in  the  market,  and  the  Chi- 
nese are  the  only  people  who  ascribe  any  specially  in- 
vigorating virtues  to  the  fins  and  tail. 

"  The  Gold  Coast  negroes  are  fond  of  sharks,  as  they 
are  of  hippopotami  and  alligators ;  and  the  Polynesians 
surfeit  themselves  to  indigestion  and  disease  by  their 
love  of  sharks'  flesh,  quite  raw. 

"  Scotland,  and  some  other  northern  countries,  eat 
the  picked  shark  and  the  dog  fish.  The  conger  eel, 
dried  and  grated,  thickens  soup  in  Catholic  countries, 
and  is  a  Jersey  dainty,  tasting  like  veal.  In  Cornwall, 
they  make  conger  eels,  as  they  do  every  thing  else,  into 
pies.  The  Chinooks  dry  a  little  fish  —  something  like 
a  sardine  —  then  burn  it  as  a  candle  ;  and  the  scales  of 
the  delicious  and  delicate  callipevi  make  exceedingly 
beautiful  ornaments. 

"  Other  people  beside  the  Gold  Coast  negroes  feed 
19 


218  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

on,  and  take  pleasure  in,  reptiles.  We  ourselves  eat 
one  of  the  tribe  when  we  devour  calipash  and  calipee. 
But,  though  we  revel  in  turtle,  we  keep  an  adverse 
countenance  to  tortoise  ;  yet  half  the  soup  eaten  by 
travellers  in  Italy  and  Sicily  .is  made  of  land  tortoise, 
boiled  down  to  its-  essence.  In  Trinidad,  and  other  of 
the  Wes't  India  islands,  land  tortoises  are  in  much  re- 
pute ;  the  eggs  of  the  close  tortoise  (iestudo  clausa) 
are  held  a  supreme  delicacy  in  North  America  ;  and 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  fed  his  fainting  men  on  '  tortuggas 
eggs '  while  sailing  up  the  Orinoco. 

"  In  both  North  and  South  America  the  salt  water 
terrapin  is  a  fat  and  luscious  luxury,  if  taken  just  at  the 
close  of  summer ;  and  its  eggs,  in  their  parchment-like  ' 
skin,  —  they  have  no  true  shell,  —  are  always  valued. 
The  hiccatee,  New  Holland's  curious  snake-necked 
version  of  a  tortoise,  has  a  liver  which  would  send  the 
pate  de  foie  gras  of  Strasbourg  out  of  the  field  alto- 
gether ;  while  of  turtle  the  world  of  gormands  is  never 
tired,  under  any  form  of  presentation  that  it  may  please 
the  chef  to  serve  him.  The  hideous,  scaly,  demoniacal- 
looking  iguana  is  better  in  the  trial  than  in  the  prom- 
ise ;  cooked  skilfully,  it  is  like  chicken  in  flesh,  and 
like  turtle  in  flavor  ;  but,  if  one  of  its  paws  should 
happen  to  stick  up  in  the  dish,  it  is  so  frightfully  sug- 
gestive of  a  pygmy  alligator  that  many  a  stout  European, 
afraid  of  nothing  else  under  the  sun,  would  be  afraid 
of  that.  It  is  excellent  eating,  being  omingustatory ; 
it  is  like  chicken,  like  rabbit,  when  stewed  or  curried ; 
like  turtle,  if  dressed  as  turtle  should  be  ;  like  hare, 


INTOXICATING   FOOD.  219 

when  turned  into  soup ;  and  a  good  dish  of  imitation 
minced  veal  might  be  made  of  it,  with  lemon  cream 
and  streaky  bacon  superadded.  It  is  of  the  range  of 
white  meats  ;  and  its  small,  soft-shelled,  delicate  eggs 
are  equal  to  itself  in  purity  and  daintiness  of  flavor. 
Indeed,  the  eggs  of  most  reptiles  are  wonderfully  appe- 
tizing ;  but  none  more  so  than  those  which  bring  forth 
the  harmless,  hideous,  and  delicate  iguana,  unless  it 
be  the  eggs  of  the  contemned  land  tortoise. 

"  Caymans  and  crocodiles,  lizards  and  frogs,  are  all 
Beaten  and  enjoyed  by  certain  people.  The  typical 
crocodile  is  like  veal ;  but  some  species  have  a  strong 
flavor  of  musk,  which  is  nauseating  enough  ;  and  some 
are  like  juicy  young  pork,  while  others  resemble  lob- 
ster. Others  again  have  a  powerful  fishy  taste,  very 
disagreeable.  On  the  whole,  therefore,  crocodile  is 
uncertain  eating,  and  not  to  be  ventured  on  with  undue 
rashness.  Alligator  is  supposed  to  be  invigorating  and 
restorative,  and  at  Manilla  is  sold  at  high  prices  ;  the 
Chinese  clutching  at  the  dried  skin,  which  they  use  in 
their  awful  messes  of  gelatinous  soup.  Alligator  is 
likened  to  sucking  pig,  but  the  alligator's  eggs  have  a 
musky  flavor. 

"  The  Australians  devour  even  the  most  venomous 
snakes  ;  and  those  who  have  tried  say  the  flavor  is  like 
collared  eel,  though  the  general  likeness  is  to  veal.  In 
olden  times  viper  broth  was,  to  a  benighted  world, 
what  turtle  soup  is  to  us  ;  and  viper  jelly  is  still  con- 
sidered a  restorative  in  Italy.  The  hunters  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi have,  at  this  day,  a  dish  called  musical  jack,  of 


220  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

which  they  are  mightily  fond,  though  it  is  only  a  stew 
of  rattlesnakes. 

"  The  French  are  notoriously  fond  of  frogs,  and  frogs 
command  a  high  price  in  the  markets  of  New  York, 
where  they  sell  the  large  bull  frog,  weighing  sometimes 
half  a  pound,  as  well  as  the  tender  little  green  frog, 
(rana  esculenta^)  whose  hind  legs  taste  so  like  delicate 
chicken,  when  served  up  with  white  sauce  in  the  res- 
taurants of  Paris  and  the  hotels  of  Vienna.  Of  course, 
frogs  do  not  escape  in  China,  which  devours  every 
thing  with  blood  or  fibre  in  it ;  and  the  horrid  negroes 
of  Surinam  eat  the  still  more  horrid  and  most  loath- 
some Surinam  toad. 

"  Snakes  and  frogs  seem  to  go  somehow  with  mon- 
keys and  parrots ;  they  are  all  of  the  same  class 
together,  though  the  naturalist  would  scoff  at  such  a 
notion,  and  no  physical  geographer  would  countenance 
it.  To  us  they  suggest  a  sequitur.  African  epicures 
are  never  more  charmed  than  when  they  can  dine  off 
a  highly-seasoned,  tender,  young  monkey,  baked,  gypsy 
fashion,  in  the  earth.  The  Rio  Janeiro  monkeys  are 
sold  in  the  Leadenhall  Markets  of  the  place,  together 
with  parrots  and  the  paca,  a  not  very  edible-looking 
rodent.  The  great  red  monkey,  and  the  black  spider 
monkey,  the  howling  monkey,  and  the  couxio  or  jack- 
eted monkey,  are  all  eaten  by  the  various  people  among 
whom  they  are  found.  Monkey  tastes  like  rabbit,  and 
is  reported  nutritious  and  pleasant. 

"  Bats  and  fox  monkeys  —  the  flying  lemur  —  are 
also  eaten,  but  are  neither  of  very  respectable  holding 


INTOXICATING  FOOD.  221 

in  the  gastronomic  aristocracy  ;  they  have  a  rank  odor, 
arid  are  unpleasant,  but  are  eaten,  nevertheless,  by  the 
natives  of  the  islands  of  the  Indian  Archipelago,  Mal- 
abar, &c.  One  species  of  bat  is  good  eating  ;  it  is  called 
by  the  naturalists  the  eatable  bat,  and  is  said  to  be 
white,  tender,  and  delicate  ;  it  is  much  favored  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Timor  ;  for  all  that  it  is  a  hideous  beast, 
like  a  weasel,  with  a  ten  inch  body,  covered  with  close 
and  shining  black  hair,  and  four  feet  wings,  when 
stretched  to  their  full  extent. 

"  If  the  rank  fox  monkey  may  be  eaten,  why  not  the 
fox  ?  So  he  is  —  in  Italy  reckoned  a  crowning  delica- 
cy ;  and  in  the  arctic  regions,  where  fresh  meat  is 
scarce,  when  judiciously  interred  in  a  pie,  he  is  consid- 
ered equal  to  any  rabbit,  under  the  same  conditions, 
ever  bred  on  the  Sussex  downs.  But,  strange  to  say, 
the  Esquimaux  dogs,  which  will  eat  any  thing  else,  will 
riot  touch  fox.  The  skunk,  the  prairie  wolf,  and  the 
sloth  are  eaten.  Cats  and  dogs  find  purchasers  and 
consumers  in  China,  where  they  are  hung  up  in  the 
butchers'  shops,  together  with  badgers  —  tasting  like 
wild  boar  —  and  other  oddities  of  food. 

"  In  the  South  Seas,  too,  dog  is  a  favorite  dish,  and 
a  puppy  stew  is  a  royal  feast  in  Zanzibar ;  but  it  is  only 
justice  to  say  that  where  dog  is  eaten,  he  is  specially 
fattened  for  the  table,  and  fed  only  on  milk  and  such 
like  cleanly  diet.  The  Australian  native  dog,  or  dingo, 
is  eaten  by  the  blacks,  but  by  no  one  else  ;  and  a  South 
African  will  give  a  large  cow  for  a  well-sized  mastiff. 
19* 


222  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

The  tiger  is  thought  by  the  Malays  to  impart  his  own 
strength  and  courage  to  his  consumer. 

"  The  American  panther  and  the  wildcat  of  Louisiana 
are  said  to  be  excellent  eating ;  so  is  the  puma,  which 
is  so  like  veal  in  flavor  that  you  would  not  know  the 
difference  blindfold.  The  lion,  too,  is  almost  identical 
with  veal  in  color,  taste,  and  texture.  Bears'  paws 
were  long  a  German  delicacy  ;  and  bears'  flesh  is  held 
equal  or  superior  to  pork  by  connoisseurs,  having  a 
mixed  flavor,  which  partakes  of  the  joint  excellences  of 
both  beef  and  pork.  The  fat  is  as  white  as  snow,  and 
4  if  a  man  were  to  drink  a  quart  of  it,'  says  one  amiable 
enthusiast,  '  it  would  never  rise  on  his  stomach  ! '  The 
tongue  and  hams  are  cured,  but  the  head  is  accounted 
worthless,  and  thrown  away. 

"  The  badger  tastes  like  wild  boar ;  the  kangaroo  is 
not  inferior  to  venison,  and  kangaroo-tail  soup  is  better 
than  half  the  messes  which  pass  in  London  under  the 
name  of  ox-tail  soup.  Hashed  wallaby  is  a  dish  no 
one  need  disdain,  and  a  small  species  of  kangaroo, 
called  pademelon,  is  as  good  as  any  hare  ever  cooked. 
An  Australian  native  banquet  is  an  odd  mixture.  Kan- 
garoos and  wallabies,  opossums  and  flying  squirrels, 
kangaroo-rats,  wombats,  and  bandicoots,  all  of  them 
more  or  less  of  the  venison  type,  represent  the  pieces 
de  resistance ;  while  rats,  mice,  snakes,  snails,  large 
white  maggots,  called  cobberra,  worms  and  grubs,  are 
the  little  dishes  and  most  favored  entrees.  A  nice 
fat  marmot  is  a  treat  —  why  not  ?  They  are  pure 
feeders.  An  Esquimaux  strings  mice  together  as  a 


INTOXICATING  FOOD.  223 

Londoner  strings  larks,  and  eats  them  with  equal 
gusto. 

u  The  muskrat  of  Martinique  is  eaten,  musky  as  it  is, 
and  indescribably  loathsome  to  a  European ;  and  the 
sleek  rats  of  the  sugar-cane  fields  make  one  of  the  most 
delicious  fricassees  imaginable  —  so  tender,  plump, 
cleanly,  and  luscious  are  they.  Sugar  plantations  gen- 
erally maintain  a  professional  rat-catcher ;  but  some 
people  think  that  rat  produces  consumption,  so  dis- 
courage the  sport.  The  Chinese  are  in  a  rat  paradise 
in  California,  where  the  rats  are  incredibly  large,  highly 
flavored,  and  very  abundant ;  they  make  a  dish  of  rats' 
brains  equal  to  the  famous  plat  of  nightingales'  tongues 
spoken  of  in  a  certain  Roman  history ;  and  rat  soup  is 
thought  by  all  right-minded  Celestials  to  beat  ox-tail  or 
gravy  soup  hollow. 

"  Mr.  Albert  Smith  gave  his  impressions  of  Chinese 
fare  as  consisting,  for  the  most  part,  of  '  rats,  bats, 
snails,  bad  eggs,  and  hideous  fish,  dried  in  the  most 
frightful  attitudes,'  with  the  addition  of  a  soup  of 
'  large  caterpillars  boiled  in  a  thin  gravy  with  onions.' 
India  is  now  about  to  supply  China  with  salted  rats, 
which  it  is  hoped  will  open  a  new  field  of  commercial 
enterprise  and  fortune  quite  unparalleled.  The  bandi- 
coot, dear  to  Australian  palates,  is  the  pig  rat ;  and 
the  vaulting  rat,  or  jerboa,  is  of  the  same  order.  The 
Indians  eat  the  beaver,  which  is  said  to  be  like  pork ; 
and  porcupine  is  a  prime  favorite  with  the  Dutch, 
the  Hottentots,  the  Australians,  the  Hudson  Bay  trap- 
pers, and  the  Italians.  Porcupine  is  a  cross  between 


224  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

fowl  and  sucking  pig,  and  accounted  exceedingly  nu- 
tritious. 

"  Elephants'  feet,  pickled  in  strong  toddy  vinegar  and 
cayenne  pepper,  are  considered  in  Ceylon  an  Apician 
luxury.  The  trunk  is  said  to  resemble  a  buffalo's 
hump,  and  the  fat  is  a  godsend  to  the  Bushmen,  who 
go  almost  any  distance  for  a  portion.  Hippopotamus 
fat,  too,  is  a  treat ;  when  salted  it  is  thought  superior 
to  our  best  breakfast  bacon,  and  the  flesh  is  both  pal- 
atable and  nutritious  ;  the  fat  is  used  instead  of  butter 
for  making  puddings,  and,  indeed,  for  all  the  ordinary 
uses  of  butter.  The  young  tapir  is  like  beef,  and  the 
peccary  and  musk  hog  are  both  superior  to  the  common 
porker,  if  care  is  taken  to  cut  out  the  fetid  orifice  in 
the  back.  Pig — the  pig  for  which  Charles  Lamb 
would  almost  dare  a  crime,  and  the  immortal  China- 
man burned  down  his  house  —  the  pig  of  our  childhood, 
our  maturity,  and  our  old  age  —  has  detractors  and 
calumniators  ;  surely  no  man  who  has  once  tasted  could 
ever  forego  again.  America  is  the  great  pork-shop  of 
the  universe  ;  not  even  excepting  Ireland,  where  the 
pig  element  is  also  strongly  developed.  In  America, 
they  speak  of  pickled  pork  by  the  acre ;  and,  in  Ohio 
alone,  they  use  about  three-quarters  of  a  million  of 
swine  yearly.  In  Spain,  pig  is  game,  lean  and  highly 
flavored,  without  fat  or  unctuousness,  devoid  of  any 
capability  for  bacon,  and  without  a  rasher  or  a  cheek 
available  for  breakfast.  It  is  fondly  thought  that  sau- 
sages come  from  this  member  of  the  pachydermatous 
family;  but  sausages  are  deceptive,  and  sometimes 


INTOXICATING  FOOD.  225 

contain  as  much  horse  flesh  and  donkey  flesh  as  their 
more  legitimate  basis.  Mr.  Richardson,  of  Manchester, 
gave  evidence  in  Mr.  Scholfield's  committee  to  the 
effect  that  horse  flesh  is  mixed  with  potted  meats,  and 
enters  largely  into  the  composition  of  collared  brawn, 
sausages,  and  polonies  ;  and  that,  indeed,  it  is  of  ma- 
terial use  in  these  preparations,  as,  being  harder  and 
more  fibrous  than  pork,  it  binds  together  the  whole, 
which  else  would  be  inclined  to  run  to  waste  and 
water. 

"  Birds  are  of  large  importance  in  the  supplies  of 
human  food  ;  and  not  only  birds  but  birds'  nests  as 
wel]  —  at  least  with  the  Chinese,  whose  dainties  are 
always  peculiar.  These  nests  are  brought  from  Java 
and  Sumatra,  the  gathering  taking  place  thrice  in  the 
year,  and  being  inaugurated  by  solemn  ceremonies. 
The  nests  are  like  fibrous,  ill-concocted  isinglass,  in- 
clining to  red,  about  the  size  of  a  goose's  egg,  and  as 
thick  as  a  silver  spoon.  They  hang  upon  the  rocks 
like  (according  to  Mr.  Albert  Smith)  watch-pockets. 
When  dry  they  are  brittle  and  wrinkled,  and  are  sold 
for  twice  their  weight  in  silver.  The  best  are  the 
whitest  and  cleanest ;  but  even  with  these  there  is  enor- 
mous labor  in  preparing  them  for  the  Chinese  market, 
the  end  and  aim  of  the  trade  being  a  soup  with  these 
nests  floating  about  like  lumps  of  soft,  mucilaginous 
jelly.  This  nest,  which  is  of  the  sea  swallow  (Jiirundo 
esculenta),  is  the  only  edible  one  known.  Many  are 
the  delicious  morsels  afforded  by  birds.  The  beccafico 
in  the  fig  season ;  the  bronze-winged  pigeon  of  Australia 


226  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

when  the  acacia  seeds  are  ripe  ;  the  young,  fat,  hideous 
diablotin  or  goat-sucker,  if  taken  when  a  tender  nest- 
ling, and  the  same  bird  when  older,  if  taken  when  the 
palms  are  in  fruit ;  the  rice  bunting  of  South  Carolina, 
when  the  rice  is  ripening  in  the  field  ;  and  the  ortolan, 
mere  lump  of  idealized  fat  as  it  is,  —  these  are  among 
the  most  celebrated  of  the  smaller  titbits,  not  forgetting 
the  snipes  and  woodcocks  of  our  own  land. 

"  Some  people  eat  insects.  The  grub  of  the  palm 
weevil,  about  the  size  of  one's  thumb,  is  much  favored 
in  the  East  and  West  Indies ;  and  the  grubs  of  most 
beetles  find  their  admirers  and  an  cesophagal  tomb  in 
some  or  other  quarter  of  the  globe.  Locusts  are  a 
substitute  for  grain  with  the  Arabs,  and  are  ground  up 
into  a  kind  of  bread  ;  beside  being  salted,  smoked,  and 
plainly  boiled  or  roasted.  The  Moors  think  a  fine  fat 
locust  superior  even  to  a  pigeon,  and  the  Hottentots 
make  a  coffee-colored  soup  of  their  eggs.  Grasshoppers 
and  cicadas  are  also  eaten ;  and,  indeed,  the  problem 
seems  to  be  to  find  any  living  thing  which  does  not 
pass  through  the  furnace  for  the  benefit  of  some  one's 
bill  of  fare.  The  white  ants  —  termites  —  are  said  to 
be  good  eating ;  so  are  ants  generally,  giving  a  pleas- 
ant acid  to  the  preparation,  whatever  it  may  be.  They 
are  distilled  with  rye  in  Sweden  for  the  purpose  of  fla- 
voring inferior  brandy.  The  grub,  or  larva,  of  the 
termites  is  like  the  most  delicious  bit  of  cream ;  but 
the  lusciousness  of  a  large  white  fat  maggot,  precious 
to  the  Australian  native,  is  said  to  be  without  com- 
pare. Stupid  native  !  he  devours  the  grubs  of  the  most 


INTOXICATING  FOOD.  227 

valuable  and  the  rarest  moths  and  butterflies ,  and 
certain  species  are  almost  extinct,  in  the  plumed  state, 
because  the  thirsty,  parched,  unentomological  black 
seizes  on  that  bit  of  living  marrow,  the  grub,  wherever 
he  finds  it.  The  thrifty  Chinese  first  wind  off  the 
cocoon,  then  send  the  chrysalis  of  the  silk-worm  to 
table.  It  is  a  pleasant  adjunct  in  a  feast  where  half- 
hatched  eggs,  sea-slugs,  rats,  frogs,  and  dogs  are  the 
principal  dainties.  Spiders  are  delicacies  of  the  dessert 
kind  to  the  Bushman  ;  and  Lalande  and  Anna  Maria 
Schurman  used  to  eat  them  like  nuts,  which  it  is  said 
they  resemble.  Snails  have  their  partisans,  and  Mu- 
rillo's  Seville  boy  ate  a  snail  pie  while  he  was  being 
painted.  Even  we  rear  a  certain  large  white  race, 
which  we  sell  in  Covent  Garden,  to  be  made  into  soup 
and  jelly  for  the  consumptive,  who  believe  them  to  be 
almost  a  specific  for  that  complaint.  The  Chinese  gloat 
over  sea-slug,  or  bcche  de  mer,  and  a  dish  of  a  certain 
sea-worm  is  one  of  the  events  of  life  to  the  dwellers  in 
the  islands  of  the  Southern  Pacific.  The  people  of 
Chili  eat  barnacles  as  we  eat  whelks  ;  the  Hottentots 
devour  handfuls  of  roasted  caterpillars,  which  taste 
like  sugared  cream  or  almond  paste,  and  stand  to  them 
in  the  place  of  sugarplums  and  comfits.  What  a  bless- 
ing it  would  be  if  we  could  persuade  our  rising  popula- 
tion to  exchange  daff  and  mineral-colored  lozenges  for 
nice  young  harmless  caterpillars  roasted  in  the  ashes. 
Think  how  the  farmers  would  gain  by  the  exchange  !  " 


228  THE  EAMROD  BROKEN. 


XXX. 

NEAL  DOW'S   LAW  EXECUTED   BY  HIMSELF. 

THE  bloody  work  made  in  Portland,  at  the  hands  of 
Neal  Dow,  while  mayor  of  that  city  during  the  year 
1855,  is  not  forgotten  by  even  a  single  one  of  our  read- 
ers. It  was  a  terrible,  a  murderous  piece  of  business, 
begun  and  carried  out  by  the  very  man  who  assumes 
to  be  the  author  of  the  Maine  Law,  as  well  as  its  suc- 
cessful pilot  among  the  rocks  and  shoals  of  more  than 
one  legislature. 

No  more  significant  fact  could  be  stated  than  this  — 
that  the  author  of  the  prescriptive,  illiberal,  tyrannical, 
and,  after  all,  inoperative  Maine  Law  was  compelled  to 
resort  to  the  military  and  the  hasty  use  of  firearms  in 
executing  it.  One  man  —  an  innocent  and  unsuspect- 
ing stranger  —  was  murdered  in  this  process ;  others 
were  wounded  ;  life  was  put  in  imminent  jeopardy,  and 
public  feeling  was  excited  to  a  pitch  that  would  not 
compensate,  in  its  fearful  effects,  for  a  thousand  fold 
more  drunkenness  than  that  particular  locality  in  which 
it  occurred  ever  witnessed. 

We  will  rehearse  the  mournful  and  disgraceful  story ; 
premising  that  it  is  no  more  than  an  earnest  of  what  is 
quite  likely  to  follow  every  where  else,  if  it  shall  be 
attempted  to  carry  out  this  most  impossible  of  all  laws 
of  the  present  day  and  generation. 


NEAL   DOW'S   LAW   EXECUTED   BY   HIMSELF.          229 

On  the  2d  day  of  June,  1855,  in  the  city  of  Portland, 
Maine,  occurred  what  has  generally  been  styled  the 
"  Maine  Law  Riot,"  but  which  a  great  many,  both  of 
the  citizens  of  Portland  and  other  places,  have  insisted 
was  the  "  Maine  Law  Murder."  The  occurrence  took 
place  on  Saturday  night.  One  man  was  killed  outright, 
and  seven  more  were  wounded.  It  appears  that  a  large 
quantity  of  liquors,  valued  at  sixteen  hundred  dollars, 
had  been  purchased  in  New  York,  and  brought  to  Port- 
land for  sale.  It  having  been  suggested  to  the  city 
marshal  that  it  would  be  necessary,  under  the  law,  to 
seize  such  liquors  as  illegally  exposed  for  sale,  the 
response  was  elicited  from  Mayor  Dow  that  he  had 
purchased  them  himself,  on  his  own  individual  respon- 
sibility, and  had  ordered  them  to  be  sent  on  and  stored 
in  the  city.  This  being  the  case,  Mr.  Dow  was  evi- 
dently guilty  of  breaking  his  own  law,  the  penalty  for 
which  would  have  been  imprisonment  for  thirty  days, 
and  the  entire  forfeiture  of  the  liquors  so  seized.  A 
complaint  was  accordingly  made  to  the  Police  Court, 
and  the  judge  issued  his  warrant  for  the  seizure  of  the 
liquors  ;  but  not  for  the  arrest  of  their  owner,  Mayor 
Dow.  This  warrant  was  not,  however,  given  to  an 
officer  who  would  have  been  ready  to  make  immediate 
service,  but  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  deputy  marshal, 
who  was  not,  very  soon  after  receiving  it,  to  be  found 
any  where.  This  deputy  was  a  friend  of  Mayor  Dow's. 

Upon  this,  the  mayor  suddenly  summoned  the  board 
of  aldermen  to  meet,  for  the  purpose  of  effecting  a 
transfer  of  this  liquor  to  the  city  for  its  agency.  The 
20 


230  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

agency,  however,  had  only  been  established  a  day  or 
two  before,  and  by  the  casting  vote  of  Mr.  Dow  him- 
self, which  was  several  weeks  subsequently  to  the  pur- 
chase of  the  liquors  by  Mr.  Dow  in  New  York.  The 
aldermen  had  been  in  session  but  a  little  while,  when 
the  missing  deputy  marshal  suddenly  made  his  appear- 
ance, and  seized  the  liquors  upon  the  warrant  in  his 
possession.  An  idle  crowd  collected  about  the  door 
where  the  liquors  were  stored ;  but  there  was  not  the 
least  symptom  of  excitement,  the  only  desire  being  to 
see  what  was  done,  and  how  it  was  done.  This  took 
place  on  the  afternoon  of  the  fatal  Saturday.  As  early 
as  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  it  being  still  light,— 
for  it  was  early  in  June,  —  a  crowd  was  found  collected 

about  the  City  Hall  building,  in  which  the  liquors  were 

• 

deposited,  and  kept  gradually  increasing  until  after 
nine  o'clock,  when  a  cry  of  fire  was  raised,  —  it  is  said 
by  Mayor  Dow's  own  order,  —  and  the  bells  were  rung, 
with  a  view  of  diverting  the  crowd  from  the  spot.  It 
produced,  however,  a  contrary  effect,  and  greatly  in- 
creased the  crowd. 

Presently  a  few  stones  and  other  missiles  were  thrown 
through  the  windows  and  against  the  door  of  the  room 
where  the  liquors  were  stored,  biit  this  was  proved  to 
be  the  work  chiefly  of  boys,  intent  on  mischief  and 
fun  ;  there  was  no  malice  about  it,  and  the  temper  of 
the  crowd  was  any  thing  but  malicious.  On  the  con- 
trary, good  nature  was  apparent  all  the  while,  and  no 
other  motive  seemed  to  have  called  the  people  together 
but  that  of  curiosity.  They  wanted  to  see  what  was 


NEAL  DOW'S  LAW   EXECUTED   BY   HIMSELF.          231 

going  on.  A  Portland  paper  remarks  at  this  point  of 
the  narrative,  "  It  is  our  decided  opinion  —  and  we  have 
not  met  an  intelligent  person  who  witnessed  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  evening  that  does  not  concur  with  us  . 
—  that  an  efficient  police  officer,  with  a  dozen  good 
men,  could  have  easily  dispersed  the  crowd  any  time 
prior  to  half  past  nine  o'clock.  Soon  after  ten  o'clock 
the  crowd  had  materially  diminished,  and  seemed  rap- 
idly dispersing,  when  Mr.  Dow,  accompanied  by  Captain 
Green  and  a  part  of  the  Light  Guard,  appeared  upon 
the  sidewalk  on  the  north  side  of  the  City  Hall.  The 
crowd  were  warned  to  disperse.  His  appearance,  sword 
in  hand,  with  soldiers,  at  once  changed  the  temper  of 
the  multitude.  They  rallied  around  them,  and  gave 
groans  and  hisses  in  reply  to  the  proclamation  to  dis- 
perse." 

Then  Mayor  Dow  gave  his  fatal  order,  —  on  the 
haste  and  impulse  of  the  moment,  as  if  instigated  to  do 
so  by  nothing  but  the  derisions  of  the  multitude,  — 
"First  section,  FIRE!"  The  order  was  not  obeyed; 
and  it  was  then  that  the  mob  began  to  hurl  missiles, 
mostly  at  him.,  A  part  of  the  company  started  off  with 
Dow  in  escort,  and  the  remainder  at  once  returned  to 
their  armory  in  an  upper  story  of  the  City  Hall  building. 
Captain  Green  refused  to  order  his  men  to  fire,  as  was 
said,  because  he  thought  it  was  unauthorized  by  the 
trivial  scenes  and  circumstances  of  the  occasion.  At  the 
time  Dow  gave  his  rash  order,  the  company  were  stand- 
ing directly  opposite  the  entrance  to  the  hall  of  the 
Mechanics'  Association  in  Clapp's  block,  and  their  fire 


232  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

would  have  taken  effect,  if  at  all,  upon  the  people  on 
the  sidewalk,  a  part  of  whom  were  mechanics  just  com- 
ing from  their  hall,  and  who  were  entirely  unconscious 
that  any  such  proceeding  was  called  for  or  contem- 
plated. After  Captain  Green's  company  had  retired, 
the  brickbats  flew  thicker  and  stronger,  and  the  police 
who  were  aiding  the  deputy  marshal,  who  had  seized 
the  liquors  to  guard  them,  commenced  firing  pistols 
charged  only  with  powder.  A  sort  of  sham  fight  was 
thus  kept  up  between  the  crowd,  which  had  now  be- 
come more  determined  in  its  character,  and  the  police, 
iintil  about  eleven  o'clock,  when  Mr.  Dow,  with  a  por- 
tion of  the  Rifle  Guards,  descended  from  the  Light 
Guards'  Armory,  and  with  the  muskets  of  the  Light 
Guards,  to  the  south  side  of  the  City  Hall.  The  doors 
of  the  liquor  store  were  then  thrown  open,  and  the 
firing  commenced,  by  Mr.  Dow's  order,  through  the 
store  upon  the  crowd  in  the  street  upon  the  other  side 
of  the  building. 

One  man,  named  George  Bobbins,  the  mate  of  the 
bark  Louisa  Eaton,  was  shot  through  the  body,  fell 
into  the  arms  of  a  person  close  by,  and  died  almost 
instantly.  He  was  only  thirty-two  years  of  age,  and 
was  to  have  been  married  to  a  young  lady  in  Portland 
very  soon. 

Thomas  McCarty,  a  hostler,  aged  twenty-two  years, 
received  a  ball  under  his  chin,  which  passed  out  through 
his  cheek,  breaking  the  jaw-bone  in  its  passage. 

Thomas  McKenney,  a  young  man  about  twenty  years 
old,  was  slightly  wounded  by  a  bullet  on  the  head.  A 


NEAL  DOW'S   LAW   EXECUTED   BY   HIMSELF.          233 

young  man  by  the  name  of  Frank  Milliken  received  a 
blow  from  a  brickbat  in  the  face,  making  a  severe 
wound.  An  apprentice  of  Mr.  Felt,  and  a  young  man 
employed  at  the  United  States  Hotel,  were  also  slightly 
wounded  by  bullets.  John  A.  Poor,  Esq.,  on  his  way 
home  from  his  office,  passed,  in  company  with  two  other 
gentlemen,  in  front  of  the  Clapp  and  Deering  block, 
and  just  before  reaching  Preble  Street  a  bullet  passed 
through  his  hat,  but  did  no  injury.  There  were  sev- 
eral other  similar  hair-breadth  escapes.  After  firing 
for  a  while,  the  soldiers  charged  bayonet  through  the 
streets,  and  made  several  wanton  and  rude  arrests, 
though  none  were  attempted  in  the  early  part  of  the 
evening,  when  they  ought  to  have  been  made.  Mr. 
Seth  Hilborn,  an  elderly  gentleman,  received  a  severe 
bayonet  wound  on  the  hip,  while  trying  to  get  out  of 
the  way  as  fast  as  he  could. 

Such  is  the  account  of  a  rash,  hot-headed,  and  vin- 
dictive man's  trying  to  enforce  a  law  of  his  own,  with 
which  it  was  impossible  that  his  pride  should  not  have 
far  more  to  do  than  his  boasted  love  for  the  race  and 
its  moral  reform.  In  teaching  people  how  to  be  tem- 
perate, he  was  betrayed  into  the  grossest  and  most 
criminal  intemperance  himself;  showing,  in  the  first 
place,  that  he  never  possessed  a  proper  conception  of 
what  the  influences  are  that  really  operate  to  man's 
elevation,  and,  secondly,  that  he  was  the  most  unsafe 
man  of  all  others  to  be  clothed  with  the  power  necessary 
to  enforce  a  law,  whose  whole  spirit  and  temper  was 
that  of  violence  itself.  We  have  been  at  the  pains,  in 
20* 


234  THE   KAMROD   BROKEN. 

a  previous  part  of  this  volume,  to  point  out  the  various 
methods  by  which  such  a  law  is  certain  to  work  mis- 
chief in  every  free  community,  and  it  is  not  necessary 
that  we  should  rehearse  them  here ;  but  this  revolting 
tragedy,  wrought  at  the  hands  of  Neal  Dow,  furnishes 
us  with  all  the  illustration  we  need,  by  the  aid  of  which 
to  make  each  one  of  them  glaringly  real.  This  case 
abundantly  sets  forth  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  that 
we- have  all  along  laid  down  in  reference  to  this  law. 
All  its  tyranny,  its  violent  and  ruthless  temper,  and  its 
dangerous  tendencies  are  well  illustrated  by  the  tragedy 
that  occurred  in  Portland  in  the  year  1855,  and  it  is 
for  this  reason  that  we  have  rehearsed  it  in  this  place. 
Having  said  that  all  such  laws,  operated  only  by  the  aid 
of  a  system  of  spying  and  lying,  of  malice  and  mean- 
ness, of  meddling  and  suspicion,  must  of  necessity  lead 
to  open  violence  in  the  end,  and  to  the  fatal  disruption 
of  all  those  ties  that  hold  communities  and  neighbor- 
hoods together  in  peace,  — we  bring  forward  this  pres- 
ent case  by  way  of  furnishing  an  ample  illustration  of 
the  position  with  which  we  set  out.  It  is,  indeed,  a 
most  melancholy  illustration  ;  yet  it  holds  up  the  truth 
of  the  whole  matter  before  the  eyes  of  the  reader  better 
than  volumes  of  arguments,  could  we  have  brought 
forward  so  many. 

In  reference  to  the  various  causes  that  directly 
brought  about  this  result,  we  quote  from  the  columns 
of  a  well-informed  journal  of  the  city  where  this  bloody 
drama  was  enacted :  — 

"  As  to  the  principal  causes  which  produced  this 


NEAL  DOW'S  LAW  EXECUTED   BY  HIMSELF.          235 

unhappy  result,  there  can  be  but  one  opinion.  The 
course  which  Mr.  Dow  has  pursued  in  the  execution  of 
the  new  liquor  law,  ruthlessly  searching  private  dwell- 
ings, and  packages  coming  by  steamboat  or  express, 
and  disregarding  what  have  ever  heretofore  been  re- 
garded as  the  sacred  rights  of  citizens,  has  done  much 
to  irritate  and  excite  hostile  feeling  against  him  and 
his  officers.  They  have  seized  liquor  wherever  they 
could  find  it  without  warrant,  and  have  treated  it  and 
its  owners  as  if  the  article  was  entirely  outlawed ;  as  if 
the  formalities  of  law  were  of  little  importance  in  dis- 
posing of  it.  Mr.  Dow  and  his  minions  have  adopted 
just  the  course  of  proceeding  which  Elder  Peck  made 
an  occasion  for  boasting  at  the  recent  Temperance 
Convention  in  Boston.  He  told  the  assembly  there, 
that  they  had  got  so  in  Maine  that  they  seized  liquors 
wherever  they  could  find  them,  and  that  they  got  the 
warrants  when  convenient.  This  spirit,  manifested  on 
the  part  of  the  authorities,  has  produced  a  deep-seated 
bitterness  in  the  community.  To  add  to  this,  Mr.  Dow 
asked  of  the  city  government,  at  its  last  meeting,  an 
appropriation  of  two  thousand  dollars  to  pay  informers 
under  the  law,  and  the  aldermen  voted  it.  The  com- 
mon council  laid  the  order  on  the  table  for  the  time ; 
but  as  there  was  a  large  majority  of  Mr.  Dow's  satellites 
in  that  body,  it  was  presumed  he  would  drive  them 
into  voting  this  appropriation  for  pimps  and  spies,  and 
thus  add  another  aggravation  to  his  already  odious 
•  manner  of  executing  the  law. 

"  Then   came  the    development  in  regard  to  the 


236  THE  EAMEOD  BROKEN. 

wholesale  purchase  of  liquor  by  Mr.  Dow,  and  the  at- 
tempt of  the  aldermen  on  Saturday  to  cloak  the  trans- 
action after  the  warrant  had  been  obtained  for  its 
seizure,  and  before  it  was  served.  The  impression  was 
pretty  strong  that  the  law  was  thus  to  be  cheated,  and 
that  both  Mr.  Dow  and  the  liquors  were  by  unfair 
means  to  escape  the  penalty  meted  out  by  him  with  a 
high  hand  in  other  cases. 

"  There  was  a  pretty  strong  current  of  feeling,  that 
no  great  moral  or  legal  wrong  would  be  done  by  letting 
Mr.  Dow's  liquor  into  the  gutter,  (the  common  recep- 
tacle for  the  article  here,  and  no  doubt  the  best  one 
when  properly  got  into  it,)  and  it  was  this  feeling  on 
the  part  of  a  few,  and  curiosity  on  the  part  of  others, 
which  caused  the  assemblage  on  Saturday  night.  The 
worst  that  any  one  of  those  assembled  had  in  view  was 
the  spilling  of  a  little  liquor,  which  is  hardly  regarded 
as  property,  and  with  those  unable  to  make  the  nice 
distinctions  between  beverage  and  medicine  is  not  a 
crime  of  a  very  serious  nature.  Whatever  of  violence 
there  was  exhibited  on  the  part  of  the  crowd,  was  di- 
rected wholly  against  this  liquor.  The  desire  for  the 
destruction  of  liquor  seemed  to  have  become  an  epi- 
demic. The  position  of  parties,  however,  was  singularly 
reversed ;  the  people  wished  to  destroy,  and  the  police, 
with  Mr.  Dow  at  their  head,  were  defending  it.  We 
do  not  believe,  however,  if  Mr.  Dow  and  the  military 
had  kept  away,  that  any  serious  harm  would  have  been 
done. 

"  A  few  panes  of  glass  broken,  and  some  other  injuries 


NEAL  DOW'S  LAW   EXECUTED   BY   HIMSELF.          237 

done  to  the  door  of  the  liquor  store,  would  have  been 
all,  and  the  crowd  would  quietly  have  dispersed  of 
themselves,  or  a  reasonable  spirit  from  any  prominent 
citizen  would  no  doubt  have  dispersed  them  any  time 
during  the  evening.  But  the  presence  of  Mr.  Dow, 
brandishing  his  sword,  and  accompanied  by  soldiers,  ex- 
asperated the  crowd  to  make  a  more  violent  attack  upon 
the  store.  These  acts  were  unlawful  and  unjustifiable 
on  the  part  of  those  who  committed  them ;  but  these 
did  not,  in  our  judgment,  call  for  or  justify  the  shed- 
ding of  blood.  The  loss  of  the  liquor  would  have  been 
of  little  consequence,  compared  with  human  life,  which, 
we  confess,  it  seems  to  us  was  most  wantonly  sacri- 
ficed in  this  case." 

Is  there  need  of  saying  more  ?  We  simply  ask  how 
much  real,  practical,  permanent  reform  can  possibly  be 
effected  by  statutes  claiming  to  be  based  only  on  the 
sentiment  of  benevolence,  but  whose  execution  is  liable 
at  any  time  to  call  out  an  armed  soldiery  to  shoot  into 
excited  mobs.  Temperance  and  Reform  this  is,  with 
a  vengeance ! 


238  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 


XXXI. 

RECEIPTS   FOE  DOMESTIC  LIQUORS. 

INASMUCH  as  it  is  generally  conceded  that  wines  must 
oe  used  in  families,  for  one  purpose  and  another,  cer- 
tainly in  a  state  of  sickness  if  not  in  health,  we  have 
thought  the  reader  would  consider  it  not  amiss  to  find 
within  these  pages  such  reliable  directions  for  the  man- 
ufacture of  pure  drinks  as  would  be  of  service  at  any 
future  time.  There  is  a  further  satisfaction,  likewise, 
that  the  drinks  thus  manufactured  will  be  pure,  and 
so  incapable  of  producing,  even  if  used  in  some  in- 
stances improperly,  those  terrible  effects  which  are 
chiefly  to  be  deplored  in  the  case  of  those  usually  sold 
and  consumed. 

We  commence  with  the  harmless  beverage  of  cider ; 
at  which  too  many  people  simply  pucker  their  mouths 
and  make  wry  faces,  instead  of  trying  to  do  something 
to  make  cider  what  jt  ought  to  be. 

"  Cider,"  says  a  high  medical  work,  "  made  of  ripe 
apples,  properly  fermented,  and  racked  or  purified,  is, 
of  all  fermented  liquors,  the  most  innocent  and  the 
best.  It  may  be  made,  by  care  and  proper  manage- 
ment, as  fine  flavored  and  as  clear  as  wine." 

There  are  several  modes  of  keeping  cider ;  but  we 
can  recommend  the  following  one  as  the  best,  if  not 


EECEIPTS   FOR   DOMESTIC   LIQUORS.  239 

the  very  best  method  in  use.     We  give  it,  anecdote 
and  all. 

"  A  few  years  ago  chemistry  and  sugar  making  were 
found  to  be  intimately  connected.  The  chemist  told 
the  planter  how  to  arrest  the  natural  tendency  of  cane 
juice  to  acidify.  It  was  simply  to  add  a  little  sulphite 
of  lime.  Now  he  tells  the  cider  makers  the  same  thing. 
Mind,  it  is  sulphite,  and  not  sulphate.  The  latter 
is  a  natural  form  of  lime,  known  as  plaster  of  Paris. 
The  former  is  a  preparation  by  the  chemists  —  the  salts 
of  sulphurous  acid.  To  use  this  material,  which  is  in- 
expensive and  harmless  to  health,  in  preserving  cider, 
Professor  Horsford,  of  Harvard  University,  says, — 

"  '  Put  the  new  cider  into  clean  casks  or  barrels,  and 
allow  it  to  ferment  from  one  to  three  weeks,  according 
as  the  weather  is  cool  or  warm.  When  it  has  attained 
to  lively  fermentation,  add  to  each  gallon  three  fourths 
of  a  pound  of  white  sugar,  and  let  the  whole  ferment 
again  until  it  possesses  nearly  the  brisk,  pleasant  taste 
which  it  is  desirable  should  be  permanent.  Pour  out 
a  quart  of  the  cider,  and  mix  with  it  one  quarter  Ox 
an  ounce  of  sulphite  of  lime  for  every  gallon  the 
cask  contains.  Stir  until  it  is  intimately  mixed,  and 
pour  the  emulsion  into  the  liquid.  Agitate  the  con- 
tents of  the  cask  thoroughly  for  a  few  moments,  then 
let  it  rest,  that  the  cider  may  settle.  Fermentation 
will  be  arrested  at  once,  and  will  not  be  resumed.  It 
may  be  bottled  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  or  it  may 
be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  cask  and  used  on  draught. 
If  bottled,  it  will  become  a  sparkling  cider  —  better  than 
what  is  called  champagne  wine.' ? 


240  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

Be  careful  to  have  the  cider  work  sufficiently  before 
putting  in  the  sulphite  of  lime,  or  you  will  get  nothing 
more  than  sweet  cider,  which  will  prove  comparatively 
worthless. 

Pure  hard  cider ,  if  kept  in  perfectly  clean  barrels  in 
a  cool  cellar,  is  no  bad  drink,  unmixed  with  any  other 
ingredient,  and  with  very  many  constitutions  it  is  a 
specific  for  summer  complaint,  nausea,  and  all  kindred 

diseases. 

WINE. 

The  same  physician  referred  to  above,  as  speaking  of 
cider  and  its  benefits,  says  of  wine  as  follows :  "  Wine, 
unmixed  with  alcohol,  used  in  moderation,  may  be 
considered  a  wholesome  drink.  In  those  countries 
where  it  is  produced  in  abundance,  the  people  drink 
freely  of  it  without  injury,  and  are  proverbially  tem- 
perate. In  Prance,  where  there  are  such  immense 
quantities  of  wine,  a  drunkard  is  seldom  or  never  to 
be  found.  It  seems  to  destroy  that  hankering  after 
stronger  spirits  which  is  so  peculiar  to  other  countries 
where  wine  is  not  much  made.  The  wine  imported 
into  this  country  frequently  contains  such  a  large  quan- 
tity of  alcohol,  that  it  becomes  injurious.  Hence  the 
necessity  and  importance  for  Americans  and  others  to 
plant  vineyards.  Some  of  our  most  sensible  men  give 
it  as  their  opinion,  that  if  wine  was  as  freely  used  as 
in  Prance,  it  would  eradicate  the  universal  vice  of  in- 
temperance." 

Says  a  noted  writer  upon  this  subject,  "  Wine,  when 
used  in  moderation,  proves  generally  grateful  to  the 


EECEIPTS   FOR  DOMESTIC  LIQUOES.  241 

stomach  ;  it  warms  and  stimulates  it  to  greater  exertion, 
promotes  probably  a  more  speedy  discharge  of  its  con- 
tents, and,  from  its  immediate  action,  imparts  a  transient 
sensation  of  warmth  and  comfort ;  but  when  taken  in 
an  immoderate  quantity,  it  produces  intoxication  for  the 
time,  and,  its  exhilarating  effects  having  subsided,  it 
leaves  the  frame  disordered,  relaxed,  and  weak.  Wine 
may  be  considered  as  the  best  of  cordials,  where  its 
good  qualities  are  not  destroyed  by  too  free  and  fre- 
quent a  use.  Most  of  the  great  drinkers  of  vinous  and 
spirituous  liquors  die  of  relaxation,  of  debility,  loss 
of  appetite,  tubercles,  and  scirrhosity  of  the  liver,  or 
dropsy. 

"  The  uses  of  wine  are  great,  both  as  a  beverage 
and  a  medicine.  Several  physicians  recommend  it  as 
an  excellent  cordial,  and  particularly  serviceable  in 
fevers.  The  moderate  use  of  wine  is  of  service  to  the 
aged,  the  weak,  and  the  relaxed,  and  to  those  who  are 
exposed  to  a  warm  and  moist  or  corrupted  air  ;  wine 
deserves  to  be  ranked  first  in  the  list  of  anti-scorbutic 
liquors.  Considered  as  a  medicine,  it  is  a  valuable 
cordial  in  languors  and  debilities  ;  grateful  and  reviv- 
ing ;  particularly  useful  in  the  low  stage  of  malignant 
or  other  fevers,  for  raising  the  pulse  and  resisting  putre- 
faction." 

There  are  various  kinds  of  domestic  wines  that  de- 
serve to  be  manufactured  with  much  more  care  than  is 
now  bestowed  upon  them  ;  if  they  are  esteemed  of  high 
value  when  made  in  the  hasty  way  they  now  are,  what 
might  they  not  become  if  an  equal  amount  of  pains 
21 


242  THE   EAMROD   BROKEN. 

was  bestowed  on  them  with  that  paid  to  the  manufac- 
ture of  the  Catawba  and  foreign  wines.  Of  the  several 
kinds  in  constant  and  common  use,  we  cite  a  few  of 
the  leading  ones,  and  speak  of  the  best  mode  of  their 
manufacture  and  preservation. 

GRAPE   WINE. 

In  the  first  place,  great  attention  is  to  be  paid  to 
the  mashing  of  the  grapes.  Where  but  a  few  bushels 
are  to  undergo  this  process,  a  simple  and  efficacious 
process  is  to  prepare  a  wooden  stamper,  say  three 
and  a  half  feet  long,  about  six  inches  in  diameter 
at  the  larger  end,  and  with  the  bottom  slightly  scooped 
or  concave.  Let  holes  be  bored  thickly  through  the 
larger  end,  with  a  quarter-inch  auger,  into  which, fix 
hard  oak  or  hickory  pins,  so  that  they  may  project 
from  the  masher  for  nearly  half  an  inch  in  every 
direction.  Now,  put  about  two  bushels  of  grapes 
into  a  clean,  sweet  cask,  holding  in  the  neighborhood 
of  forty  gallons,  and  proceed  to  pound  the  masher  up 
and  down  among  them.  Continue  this  operation  until 
the  entire  mass  of  the  grapes  is  thoroughly  mashed. 
Then  empty  the  whole  mass  into  a  box  placed  upon  the 
wine  press. 

In  European  countries,  the  practice  has  been  to  tread 
out  the  grapes  with  the  feet,  the  grapes  being  placed  in 
a  small  tub,  the  bottom  of  which  is  perforated  with  a 
great  many  holes.  But  this  practice  is  not  likely  to  be 
adopted  by  us.  The  skins  and  pulp  of  our  grape  are 
so  hard  that  the  work  would  be  too  laborious ;  and  many 


RECEIPTS   FOR   DOMESTIC   LIQUORS.  243 

of  our  vintners  think  that  the  "  tannin  "  of  the  stem 
improves  the  flavor  and  aids  in  the  preservation  of  the 
wine.  Concerning  the  European  practice  of  allowing 
the  mashed  grapes  to  stand  in  casks  for  fermentation, 
before  pressing,  it  is  thought  that  it  will  hardly  be 
adopted  in  this  country  by  wine-makers,  although  many 
experiments  are  yet  to  be  tried  in  order  to  satisfy  the 
public  on  the  matter.  It  is  thought  that  the  season 
here,  at  the  time  of  the  vintage,  is  too  warm  to  per- 
mit it. 

After  mashing  comes  pressing.  As  soon,  therefore, 
as  possible,  the  mass  of  mashed  grapes  is  to  be  taken 
to  the  wine  press.  This  instrument  each  person  will 
of  course  suit  to  his  own  crop  of  grapes  and  length  of 
purse.  Any  modern  hand-book  on  the  manufacture  of 
wine  will  furnish  the  reader  with  diagrams  of  such  an 
instrument  as  he  will  need,  together  with  complete  di- 
rections for  their  manufacture.  The  whole  mass  is 
poured  upon  a  floor  like  a  frame,  to  which  is  tightly 
fitted  a  cover ;  and  on  the  back  of  this  is  a  stout  cross- 
piece,  to  which  the  screw  is  applied  that  produces  the 
wine.  The  sap  that  first  flows  from  the  press  makes  the 
best  wine  ;  all  the  other  expressions  are  of  course  in- 
ferior. Yet  few  persons  in  this  country  would  stop  to 
consider  so  trifling  a  fact,  important  as  it  is  in  its 
results. 

Let  the  whole  work  be  performed  with  as  much 
nicety  and  despatch  as  possible.  Young  wine  juice 
absorbs  acids  very  readily  from  the  atmosphere,  and 
likewise  from  the  vessels,  if  not  thoroughly  clean,  into 


244  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

which  it  runs.  The  grapes,  either  before  or  after  mash- 
ing, should  not  be  allowed  to  stand  about  for  any  length 
of  time  in  tubs,  casks,  and  barrels,  but  be  attended  to 
at  once.  Make  a  business  of  it  while  the  work  is  going 
on,  and,  where  the  small  quantity  of  grapes  will  per- 
mit, mash  and  press  all  that  are  gathered  in  one  day 
on  the  same  day,  and  carry  the  juice  instantly  to  the 
cellar,  leaving  it  as  little  exposed  to  the  atmosphere  as 
need  be.  .It  is  of  course  highly  important  that  casks, 
clean  and  tight,  should  be  all  prepared  for  the  recep- 
tion of  the  juice  of  the  grape,  and  made  as  large  as  you 
can  secure.  The  larger  the  body  of  wine  fermenting 
in  one  vessel,  the  better  will  be  the  wine  finally  pro- 
duced. 

The  casks  that  receive  the  product  of  the  wine  press 
should  not  be  allowed  to  stand  on  the  cellar  bottom, 
but  upon  platforms  or  scaffoldings,  and  should  be  filled 
not  more  than  three  fourths  full.  Within  twenty-four 
hours  the  wine  will  commence  the  work  of  fermenta- 
tion. By  this  process,  many  of  the  finer  essences  be- 
longing to  the  wine,  and  that  would  greatly  improve 
its  flavor  and  general  character,  escape.  The  carbonic 
acid  especially  is  lost,  being  secured  only  in  the  wines 
known  as  champagne.  But  the  cost  of  securing  this 
essential  element  is  so  great  as  to  be  out  of  the  ques- 
tion with  those  who  would  be  glad  to  get  hints  on 
domestic  wine-making  from  the  pages  of  this  volume. 

When  fermentation  subsides,  instantly  close  the  casks 
so  that  the  oxygen  of  the  atmosphere  cannot  penetrate 
to  the  fermenting  mass.  Of  course  the  bungs  are  left 


RECEIPTS   FOR   DOMESTIC   LIQUORS.  245 

out  while  this  process  is  going  on,  else  the  casks  would 
burst.  Fermentation  being  over,  drive  in  the  bungs 
tightly.  The  wine  becomes  clear  generally  in  a  few 
weeks,  when  it  may  be  drawn  off.  The  wine  should  be 
carefully  kept  in  dry,  walled  cellars,  impervious  both  to 
the  heats  of  summer  and  the  cold  of  winter.  Vegeta- 
bles, that  produce  a  peculiar  and  sometimes  an  offensive 
smell,  should  not  be  kept  in  the  same  cellar  with  the 
wine,  or,  certainly,  not  very  near  the  casks.  Every 
thing  should  be  as  clean,  sweet,  and  dry  as  it  can  be 
made. 

In  the  spring,  the  fermented  wine  should  be  drawn 
off,  if  it  has  not  already  been  done,  when  it  will  be 
found  to  have  become  much  improved  by  its  winter's 
sleep.  Then  it  is  placed  in  bottles  for  family  use,  some 
of  which  may  be  drank  to  advantage  after  suffering 
them  to  lie  embedded  in  sand  for  about  six  weeks. 
Good  wines  are  clear  wines,  and  have  of  course  gone 
through  the  necessary  process  of  fermentation.  All 
the  boasted  unfermented  wines  are  crimes  against  nature, 
and  contain  elements  that  go  to  the  making  up  of  no 
wholesome  beverage. 

We  now  proceed  to  cite  some  of  the  simpler  domestic 
wines,  and  to  give  the  best  and  easiest  methods  of  man- 
ufacturing them. 

GOOSEBERRY  CHAMPAGNE. 

Secure  none  but  the  largest  sized  gooseberries  that 
are  not  yet  turned  red,  and  take  off  clean  their  tops 
and  tails.     Measure  a  gallon  of  pure,  soft  water,  and 
21* 


246  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

weigh  out  three  pounds  of  the  berries ;  place  the  ber- 
ries in  a  clean  tub,  and  pour  on  a  little  water ;  mash 
them  well  with  a  wooden  masher ;  then  pour  on  the 
rest  of  the  water,  and  stir  the  whole  mass  thoroughly. 
Place  now  a  cloth  over  the  tub,  allowing  the  whole  to 
stand  four  days;  but  stir  it  frequently  during  that 
time.  Then  strain  the  liquor  into  another  vessel,  and 
add  to  every  gallon  of  liquor  four  pounds  of  fine  loaf 
sugar,  and  to  every  five  gallons  of  the  whole  a  quart 
of  the  purest  French  brandy.  Have  the  mass  well 
mixed,  and  pour  it  afterwards  into  a  clean  and  sweet 
cask  that  will  be  exactly  filled,  leaving  no  space  at  all. 
Put  the  cask  on  its  side  in  a  cool,  dry  place  in  the  cel- 
lar, and  place  the  bung  loosely  over  the  bung  hole.  Be 
very  careful  not  to  allow  the  cask  to  be  disturbed  in 
any  way,  since  any  shaking  or  jarring  is  calculated  to 
injure  the  wine.  Let  it  work  now  for  about  two  weeks, 
when  the  noise  caused  by  the  fermentation  will  cease 
to  be  heard.  Next  bottle  it,  driving  in  the  corks  tight- 
ly. Place  the  bottles  on  their  sides,  and  by  suffering 
them  to  lie  for  six  months  they  will  be  found  to  furnish 
as  lively  champagne  wine  as  any  family  would  wish  to 
drink. 

RED   CURRANT   WINE. 

An  excellent  and  much  admired  wine  is  made  of  the 
red  currant,  which  sells  very  readily  in  the  market  at 
the  rate  of  two  dollars  a  gallon.  This  currant  is  acid, 
but  juicy,  arid  of  a  very  fine  vinous  flavor.  The  fruit 
is  very  acceptable  at  the  time  when  it  makes  its  appear- 
ance, and  is  used  in  sundry  ways  by  those  whose  palates 
crave  just  the  refreshment  it  is  ready  to  furnish. 


RECEIPTS  FOR  DOMESTIC   LIQUORS.  247 

In  order  to  make  a  good  and  palatable  drink,  in  the 
form  of  wine,  from  this  common  berry,  observe  the  fol- 
lowing process:  After  expressing  the  juice  from  the 
currant,  add  two  pails  of  water  and  three  pounds  of 
sugar  to  each  gallon.  Or,  what  is  better,  make  a  strong 
sirup  by  adding  a  pound  of  sugar  to  a  quart  of  currant 
juice,  strain  and  bottle  it,  or  put  it  in  casks,  cork  as 
tightly  as  will  be  safe,  and  set  away  in  a  cool  place  in 
the  cellar,  that  the  fermentation  may  not  be  too  rapid. 
Afterwards  add  a  little  water  to  the  pomace,  so  that 
each  quart  of  currants  and  pound  of  sugar  shall  receive 
a  quart  of  water.  This  mixture  will  keep  well  for  one 
or  two  years,  and  is  at  all  times  sweet  and  refreshing, 
besides  containing  none  of  the  alcohol  to  be  found  in 
all  imported  wines. 

GREEN   CURRANT  WINE. 

Let  the  currants  be  full  grown,  though  not  so  far 
advanced  as  to  have  begun  to  redden.  Pick  them  clean 
from  the  stems,  weigh  them,  and  allow  to  every  three 
pounds  a  gallon  of  soft,  pure  water.  Proceed  to  mash 
them  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  case  of  the  gooseberry 
champagne ;  but  in  the  matter  of  sugar,  a  good  light- 
brown  sugar  may  be  used,  if  preferred  on  account  of 
the  expense,  instead  of  the  loaf  sugar.  As  soon  as  the 
fermenting  process  is  over,  it  may  be  tightly  secured  in 
the  cask,  without  the  trouble  of  bottling,  the  bung  be- 
ing driven  in.  After  standing  in  a  proper  place  for  six 
months,  it  will  be  fit  for  drinking. 


248  THE  EAMROD  BROKEN. 


PEACH  WINE. 

Weigh  out  eight  pounds  of  the  best  freestone  peaches, 
fully  ripe,  and  very  juicy.  Slice  them  into  a  couple  of 
gallons  of  soft  water,  and  add  five  pounds  of  well-broken 
loaf  sugar.  Next  extract  the  kernels  from  the  peach 
stones,  break  them  up,  and  sprinkle  them  in  the  bottom 
of  a  clean  tub,  or  other  vessel.  Then  put  the  peaches, 
with  the  now  dissolved  sugar,  into  a  kettle,  and  boil 
and  skim  it  till  the  scum  no  longer  rises.  Strain  it 
now  through  a  large  sieve  into  the  tub  containing  the 
broken  peach-stone  kernels.  Stir  all  together  thor- 
oughly, and  cover  it  over  tightly  till  all  is  cool.  Then 
throw  in  a  large  slice  of  toasted  bread,  smothered  with 
yeast,  and  leave  it  to  ferment  ;  when  fermentation 
ceases,  strain  it  into  a  keg,  and  add  a  bottle  of  sweet 
Malaga  wine,  or  Muscadel.  Now  let  it  stand  undis- 
turbed for  six  months.  After  that,  draw  off  a  small 
quantity  in  a  glass,  to  see  if  it  is  clear ;  if  it  should  not 
be  by  that  time,  draw  off  a  pint  of  the  wine,  into  which 
put  an  ounce  of  gum  arabic ;  dissolve  the  mixture  in 
a  slow  heat,  and  add  an  ounce  of  powdered  chalk. 
When  all  are  well  dissolved,  pour  back  the  pint  of 
wine  into  the  cask,  stirring  it  gently  the  while  with  a 
stick  ;  but  be  careful  not  to  let  the  stick  touch  the  bot- 
tom, lest  it  may  disturb  the  lees,  or  sediment,  in  the 
cask.  After  standing  three  days  longer,  it  will  be  fit 
for  bottling.  Six  months  keeping  will  make  it  a  very 
fine  beverage. 


RECEIPTS   FOR   DOMESTIC   LIQUORS.  249 


BLACKBERRY   WINE. 

This  is  quite  a  common  domestic  wine,  but  none  too 
many  families  are  in  the  habit  of  manufacturing  it. 
Let  the  berries  be  fully  ripe,  and  pick  them  all  over 
carefully.  Allow  a  quart  of  soft  water  to  every  quart 
of  the  berries,  and  boil  the  water  separate.  Put  the 
blackberries  in  a  clean  tub,  and  mash  them  with  a 
wooden  instrument,  so  as  to  do  the  work  thoroughly. 
Pour  the  boiling  water  upon  the  mashed  berries,  and 
let  them  stand  in  a  cool  place  till  the  next  morning, 
stirring  them  from  time  to  time.  Then  press  out  all 
the  juice,  measure  it,  and  allow  for  every  quart  of  the 
liquor  half  a  pound  of  sugar.  Put  the  sugar  into  a 
cask,  and  strain  the  liquor  upon  it  through  linen.  Stir 
frequently  till  the  sugar  is  completely  dissolved,  and 
leave  the  cask  open  till  the  liquor  has  ceased  to  work. 
Add  now  half  an  ounce  of  isinglass,  or  an  ounce  of  gum 
arabic,  dissolved  in  a  little  hot  water  ;  or  the  beaten 
whites  of  four  eggs  will  answer  as  well ;  keep  the  cask 
open  till  the  next  day,  after  which  the  bung  may  be 
driven  in.  In  two  months  it  will  be  fit  for  bottling. 

DOMESTIC   BEER. 

Pleasant  and  healthy  beer  can  be  made  very  cheaply. 
Almost  any  cook  book  contains  at  least  half  a  dozen 
different  receipts  for  its  manufacture.  Any  old  lady  or 
skilful  country  housewife  can  tell  how  to  make  beer 
that  will  make  a  sick  man  well,  and  a  well  man  happy 
and  strong.  The  time  once  was,  when  a  girl  who  could 


250  THE   EAMROD   BROKEN. 

not  bake  and  brew  about  as  well  as  her  mother,  stood 
but  a  slim  chance  in  the  field  of  matrimony.  A  very 
common  mode  of  manufacturing  beer  is,  to  sweeten  as 
much  water  as  is  wanted  to  suit  the  taste  of  the  drink- 
er,—  although  the  more  sweetening  used,  the  more 
vitality  will  the  beer  contain,  —  to  add  to  each  gallon 
of  water  half  a  gill  of  common  yeast,  and  the  strength, 
in  liquid  form,  obtained  by  steeping  a  common  handful 
of  hops.  This  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  good 
beer,  yet  it  is  usual  to  add  sarsaparilla,  yellow  dock, 
spruce,  or  any  thing  else  that  the  health  or  taste  of  the 
consiimer  may  require. 

DISTILLED   LIQUORS. 

The  process  of  distillation  is  very  simple,  and  if  our 
Saviour  was  warranted  in  performing  his  first  miracle, 
—  that  of  turning  water  into  wine,  —  may  not  the  dis- 
tilling practices  of  the  present  time  be  defended,  which 
only  convert  water,  with  molasses  added,  into  New  and 
West  India  rum  ?  The  rum  itself  is  good,  may  be  used 
innocently,  and  its  efficiency  as  a  medicinal  agent  is 
undeniable.  Its  abuse  is  quite  another  matter,  and  is 
as  infinitely  different  from  its  proper  use  as  hell  is  said 
to  be  from  heaven. 


THE   CUKSE   OF  OPIUM.  251 


XXXII. 

THE   CURSE  OF   OPIUM. 

UPON  the  tendency  of  the  human  race  generally  to 
manufacture  stimulating  drinks,  or  compounds,  we 
have  already  commented  in  a  previous  chapter,  and  at 
quite  sufficient  length.  It  is  an  acknowledged  fact, 
therefore,  that  men  have  a  natural  desire  or  craving 
for  stimulus,  and  that  desire  they  will  gratify  in  one 
way  or  another,  at  almost  any  cost ;  if  the  gratification 
of  this  instinct  is  denied  or  forbidden  them,  instead  of 
its  being  educated,  disciplined,  and  refined,  there  is 
little  doubt,  as  the  history  of  mankind  fully  shows,  that 
the  instinct  will  pursue  even  improper  and  ruinous 
courses  in  order  to  secure  the  enjoyment  of  its  own 
purposes. 

Hence  in  some  countries,  where  we  think  civilization 
has  long  since  demonstrated  the  impossibility  of  such  a 
thing,  we  find  men  of  the  highest  social  position,  hold- 
ing office  under  government,  and  possessed  of  the  most 
brilliant  talents,  devoted  to  the  daily  use  of  the  deadly 
drug  called  opium,  than  which  no  other  power  among 
stimulants  is  at  once  more  subtle  and  tyrannical.  Rum 
is  comparatively  powerless  by  the  side  of  opium.  It 
holds  its  devotees  like  bound  slaves.  De  Quincey  fur- 
nishes an  illustration  of  a  man  with  splendid  talents, 


252  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

who,  by  the  habitual  use  of  this  potent  enchantress, 
practically  threw  away  the  high  and  valuable  services 
of  an  active  manhood,  and  lives  now  only  to  do  daily 
and  even  hourly  penance  for  the  guilt  of  which  he 
stands  self-charged  by  his  habit  of  indulgence.  It  is  a 
belief  with  him  now,  years  after  his  reformation  was 
effected,  that  a  large  and  greedy  worm  has  been  gen- 
erated in  his  vitals,  and  that  the  horrible  creature's  con- 
stant cravings  for  stimulus  are  the  cause  of  the  ever- 
lasting gnawing  with  which  his  life  is  afflicted. 

In  Eastern  countries,  as  in  China,  opium  is  largely 
eaten  and  smoked  by  the  people  for  its  exhilarating 
effects ;  likewise  in  Turkey,  where  the  inhabitants, 
some  of  them,  derive  the  very  inspiration  and  essence 
of  their  lives  from  partaking  of  it.  The  lotus  plant  is 
likewise  used  in  Egypt,  and  in  India  the  liquor  that  is 
distilled  from  hemp.  As  we  before  said,  there  is  no 
end  to  the  methods  by  which  this  universal  instinct  in 
man,  that  craves  for  stimulus  of  some  sort,  will  in- 
geniously resort  to  secure  its  gratification.  But  opium 
eating,  of  all  others,  is,  without  doubt,  the  habit  that  is 
most  deplorable.  It  most  surely  and  thoroughly  de- 
praves the  intellects  of  its  victim ;  it  soonest  runs  its 
delicate  and  insinuating  influences  under  and  through 
his  whole  nature,  and  determines  to  rule  and  ruin  it 
together ;  it  will  have  all  its  worshippers  the  most  sub- 
missive possible  of  all  slaves,  begging  for  the  poorest 
favors,  which  in  a  right  state  of  health  and  self-control, 
they  would  have  but  to  reach  out  and  take  for  them- 
selves. 


THE    CURSE   OF   OPIUM.  253 

He  who  once  eats  of  this  drug  usually  eats  of  it  for- 
ever. There  is  a  spell  in  its  influence  which  no  man  has 
full  power  to  withstand.  He  becomes  a  slave  in  his  very 
soul.  The  power  over  himself  is  almost  gone.  He  is 
sunk  completely  in  his  indulgence.  He  is  no  indi- 
vidual—  he  is  a  thing.  Friendship  goes  for  nothing 
with  him ;  nor  love  of  kindred,  nor  the  pious  duties 
that  belong  to  a  husband  and  father,  nor  the  claims  of 
citizenship  and  manhood.  His  nature  undergoes  a 
rapid  reversal.  Every  thing  seems  to  be  turned  inside 
out.  He  has  no  ideas  of  responsibility,  no  self-respect, 
no  shape  or  form  for  his  character  whatever ;  he  is 
devoted  to  but  one  thing,  and  that  the  drug  of  which 
he  eats,  and  through  whose  instrumentality  he  destroys 
himself.  A  pitiful  spectacle  such  men  present,  but 
quite  as  common  as  it  is  wretched. 

De  Quincey,  the  famous  English  author,  in  his  "  Con- 
fessions of  an  Opium  Eater,"  remarks  of  the  common- 
ness of  this  practice  of  eating  opium,  and  the  large 
class  addicted  to  it,  "  But  who  are  they  ?  Reader,  I 
am  sorry  to  say  a  very  numerous  class  indeed.  Of  this 
I  became  convinced  some  years  ago,  by  computing,  at 
that  time,  the  number  of  those  in  one  small  class  of 
English  society,  (the  class  of  men  distinguished  for  tal- 
ent, or  of  eminent  station,)  who  were  known  to  me, 
directly  or  indirectly,  as  opium  eaters.  Now,  if  one 
class,  comparatively  so  limited,  could  furnish  so  many 
scores  of  cases,  (and  that  within  the  knowledge  of  one 
single  inquirer,)  it  was  a  natural  consequence  that  the 
entire  population  of  England  would  furnish  a  propor- 
22 


254  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

tionate  number.  The  soundness  of  this  inference, 
however,  I  doubted,  until  some  facts  became  known  to 
me,  which  satisfied  me  that  it  was  not  incorrect.  I 
will  mention  two :  1.  Three  respectable  London  drug- 
gists in  widely  remote  quarters  of  London,  from  whom 
I  happened  lately  to  be  purchasing  small  quantities  of 
opium,  assured  me  that  the  number  of  amateur  opium 
eaters  (as  I  may  term  them)  was,  at  this  time,  im- 
mense, and  that  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  these 
persons,  to  whom  habit  had  rendered  opium  necessary, 
from  such  as  were  purchasing  it  with  a  view  to  suicide, 
occasioned  them  daily  trouble  and  disputes.  This  evi- 
dence respected  London  only. 

"But,  2,  (which  will  probably  surprise  the  reader 
more.)  Some  years  ago,  on  passing  through  Manchester, 
I  was  informed  by  several  cotton  manufacturers  that 
their  work  people  were  rapidly  getting  into  the  practice 
of  opium  eating  ;  so  much  so,  that  on  a  Saturday  after- 
noon the  counters  of  the  druggists1  were  strewed  with 
pills  of  one,  two,  or  three  grains,  in  preparation  for  the 
known  demand  of  the  evening.  The  immediate  occa- 
sion of  this  practice  was  the  lowness  of  wages,  which, 
at  that  time,  would  not  allow  them  to  indulge  in  ale 
or  spirits ;  and,  wages  rising,  it  may  be  thought  that 
this  practice  would  cease  ;  but  as  I  do  not  readily  be- 
lieve that  any  man,  having  once  tasted  the  divine 
luxuries  of  opium,  will  afterwards  descend  to  the 
gross  and  mortal  enjoyments  of  alcohol,  I  take  it  for 
granted 

*  That  those  eat  now  who  never  ate  before, 
And  those  who  always  ate  now  eat  the  more.' " 


THE   CURSE   OF   OPIUM.  255 

The  amount  of  opium  annually  consumed  in  the 
United  States  has  latterly  begun  to  attract  public  at- 
tention. It  is  reported  that  some  three  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds  were  imported  into  the  country  last  year, 
of  which  the  comparatively  small  portion  used  for  me- 
dicinal purposes,  as  can  easily  and  accurately  be  ascer- 
tained, shows  how  much  —  and  it  was  an  enormous 
quantity  —  was  used  by  the  regular  eaters  of  the  drug. 
Few  persons  have  any  idea  of  the  matter.  The  evil 
has  gained  a  footing  that  it  will  be  no  such  easy  work 
to  eradicate.  It  takes  hold  on  rich  and  poor  alike  ;  it 
knows  no  distinctions  of  position,  of  culture,  or  of  any 
thing  else  ;  it  insinuates  its  way  into  the  habits  of  our 
population,  every  person  sacredly  keeping  his  own 
secret,  and  soon  comes  to  assert  its  own  prerogative,  if 
not  the  entire  mastery. 

Even  those  persons  who  have  set  up  the  loudest  out- 
cries against  others  using  spirits  and  wines  for  social 
and  stimulating  purposes,  addict  themselves  to  this 
vice  with  the  utmost  constancy.  They  either  do  not 
see  their  inconsistency,  or  they  are  hypocrites  on  prin- 
ciple. In  families  where  we  little  dream  of  such  a 
practice,  and  which,  of  all  others,  we  would  suppose  to 
be  exempt  from  their  invasion,  the  deadly  but  infatu- 
ating drug  is  secretly  used,  each  member  keeping  the 
practice  closely  to  himself,  and  going  on  in  his  indul- 
gence until  his  thraldom  is  thorough  and  complete. 
Professional  men  buy  and  eat  opium  for  the  sake  of 
the  splendid  relief  it  furnishes  them  from  the  toilsome 
cares  of  their  daily  avocations.  Lawyers  address  juries 


256  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

on  matters  where  human  life  trembles  in  the  balance, 
under  the  weird  spell  of  this  potent  drug.  Authors  sit 
at  their  solitary  tables,  silent  and  rapt  in  thought,  and 
pour  forth  a  wealth  of  intellect  which,  in  their  normal 
condition,  they  are  astonished  to  find  in  any  sense  the 
fruit  of  their  own  faculties.  Ladies  in  high  life  scruple 
not  to  buy  and  eat  opium,  for  the  splendid  dreams  it 
drifts  over  the  sky  of  their  lives,  and  deem  themselves 
happy  only  when  lapped  in  the  indescribable  elysium 
produced  by  the  Eastern  narcotic.  And  failing  to  get 
opium  itself,  they  consume  laudanum  in  large  quanti- 
ties, making  it  do  the  work  instead. 

So  that  much  the  larger  part  of  the  opium  and  lauda- 
num imported  into  this  country  is  consumed  by  those 
who  purchase  it  for  the  sake  of  its  intoxicating  prop- 
erties. What  that  exact  quantity  is,  cannot  of  course 
be  ascertained,  because  of  the  secrecy  with  which  it  is 
employed.  What  is  used  for  medicinal  purposes  can 
be  readily  known  ;  and  the  great  balance  must  be  set 
down  to  the  charge  of  these  men  and  women  —  and  a 
vast  army  they  make  among  our  population  —  who  ha- 
bitually eat  the  drug,  and  r  drink  the  deadly  wine  that 
is  compressed  in  its  manufacture.  It  would  startle  us 
all  if  we  could  count  the  numbers  of  these  people,  and 
behold  them  drawn  out  in  array  before  us.  But  the 
fact  is  none  the  less  well  established,  lamentable  as  it 
is,  than  if  we  really  had  the  whole  of  this  wretched 
body  of  beings  directly  before  our  eyes. 


THE  CURSE  OF  OPIUM.  257 

THE  HASHEESH  EATER. 

The  eating  of  hasheesh  is  as  common  in  Eastern  coun- 
tries as  the  use  of  opium  ;  and  it  is  but  another  proof 
of  the  universal  tendency  of  mankind  to  the  discovery 
and  consumption  of  some  agent  that  shall  exalt  and 
enlarge  the  spirit,  and  seem  to  make  life  larger  than 
it  is. 

A  book  was  published  by  the  Harpers  of  New  York, 
a  short  time  ago,  entitled  "  The  Hasheesh  Eater ;  "  and 
the  author  describes  hasheesh,  and  its  weird  influence 
on  him  who  eats  of  it,  in  the  following  way:  "  In 
northern  latitudes  the  hemp  plant  {cannabis  saliva) 
grows  almost  entirely  to  fibre,  becoming,  in  virtue  of. 
this  quality,  the  great  resource  for  mats  and  cordage. 
Under  a  southern  sun  this  same  plant  loses  its  fibrous 
texture,  but  secretes,  in  quantities  equal  to  one  third  of 
its  bulk,  an  opaque  and  greenish  resin.  Between  the 
northern  and  the  southern  hemp  there  is  no  difference, 
except  the  effect  of  diversity  of  climate  upon  the  same 
vegetable  essence  ;  yet  naturalists,  misled  by  the  much 
greater  extent  of  gummy  secretion  in  the  latter,  have 
distinguished  it  from  its  brother  of  the  colder  soil  by 
the  name  cannabis  Indica. 

"  The  resin  of  the  cannabis  Indica  is  hasheesh.  From 
time  immemorial  it  has  been  known  among  all  the  na-' 
tions  of  the  East  as  possessing  powerful  stimulant  and 
narcotic  properties ;  throughout  Turkey,  Persia,  Ne- 
paul,  and  India,  it  is  used  at  this  day  among  all  classes 
of  society  as  an  habitual  indulgence.  The  forms  in 
22-* 


258  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

which  it  is  employed  are  various.  Sometimes  it  appears 
in  the  state  in  which  it  exudes  from  the  mature  stalk, 
as  a  crude  resin ;  sometimes  it  is  manufactured  into  a 
conserve  with  clarified  butter,  honey,  and  spices ;  some- 
times a  decoction  is  made  of  the  flowering  tops  in  water 
or  arrack.  Under  either  of  these  forms  the  method  of 
administration  is  by  swallowing.  Again,  the  dried 
plant  is  smoked  in  pipes  or  chewed,  as  tobacco  among 
ourselves. 

"  Used  in  whatever  preparation,  hasheesh  is  character- 
ized by  the  most  remarkable  phenomena,  both  physical 
and  spiritual.  A  series  of  experiments  made  with  it 
by  men  of  eminent  attainments  in  the  medical  profes- 
sion, principally  at  Calcutta,  and  during  the  last  ten 
years,  prove  it  to  be  capable  of  inducing  all  the  ordi- 
nary symptoms  of  catalepsy,  or  even  of  trance. 

"  However,  from  the  fact  of  its  so  extensive  daily  use 
as  a  pleasurable  stimulus  in  the  countries  where  experi- 
ments with  it  have  been  made,  it  has  doubtless  lost  in- 
terest in  the  field  of  scientific  research,  and  has  come  to 
be  regarded  as  only  one  more  means,  among  the  multi- 
tude which  mankind  in  all  latitudes  are  seeking,  for 
the  production  of  a  sensual  intoxication.  Now  and 
then  a  traveller,  passing  by  the  bazaar  where  it  was  ex- 
posed for  sale,  moved  by  curiosity,  has  bought  some 
form  of  the  hemp,  and  made  the  trial  of  its  effects  upon 
himself;  but  the  results  of  the  experiment  were  dig- 
nified with  no  further  notice  than  a  page,  or  a  chapter, 
in  the  note  book  of  his  journeyings,  and  the  hasheesh 
phenomena,  with  an  exclamation  of  wonder,  were 


THE   CURSE   OF   OPIUM.  259 

thenceforward  dismissed  from  his  own  and  the  public 
mind." 

The  writer  then  proceeds  to  give  the  results  of  his 
own  personal  acquaintance  with  the  drug,  which  he 
does  in  a  most  vivid  style,  conjuring  up  in  the  imagina- 
tion of  his  reader  the  wildest  and  seemingly  most  un- 
real forms  it  is  possible  to  conceive  of.  He  treats  the 
subject  of  hasheesh  as  "  a  key  to  some  of  the  most  sin- 
gular manifestations  of  the  Oriental  mind,  as  a  narra- 
tive interesting  to  the  attentive  student  of  the  human 
soul  and  body,  and  the  mysterious  network  of  interact- 
ing influences  which  connect  them."  And  he  thus 
finely  sums  up  the  object  he  has  in  giving  his  expe- 
riences as  a  hasheesh  eater  to  the  world :  "  The  aim  of 
this  relation  is  not  merely  aesthetic  nor  scientific; 
though  throughout  it  there  be  no  stopping  to  moralize, 
it  is  my  earnest  desire  that  it  may  teem  with  sugges- 
tions of  a  lesson  without  which  humanity  can  learn 
nothing  in  the  schools.  It  is  this :  The  soul  withers 
and  sinks  from  its  growth  towards  the  true  end  of  its 
being,  beneath  dominance  of  any  sensual  indulgence. 
The  chain  of  its  bondage  may  for  a  long  time  continue 
to  be  golden,  —  many  a  day  may  pass  before  the  fetters' 
gall?  —  yet  all  the  while  there  is  going  on  a  slow  and 
insidious  consumption  of  its  native  strength ;  and  when 
at  last  captivity  becomes  a  pain,  it  may  awake  to  dis- 
cover, in  inconceivable  terror,  that  the  very  forces  of 
disinthralment  have  perished  out  of  its  reach." 

The  experiences  of  the  eater  of  hasheesh  are  too 
various  and  terrible  to  be  described ;  in  fact,  no  verbal 


260  THE  BAMROD   BROKEN. 

description  is  equal  to  the  gigantic  reality.  A  moment 
of  time  becomes  years  to  the  person  under  its  influence ; 
a  common  voice  sounds  like  the  shouting  of  a  mighty 
host ;  all  persons,  space,  time,  and  number  are  viewed 
as  through  a  spiritual  telescope  ;  the  world  has  become 
a  larger  world,  a  grander  sphere,  a  vaster  reality.  The 
demon  of  madness  seems  to  have  seized  hold  upon  the 
one  yielding  to  the  fatal  indulgence.  He  goes  he  knows 
not  whither ;  he  lives  newly  ;  old  places  and  old  friends 
take  on  fresh  and  varied  characteristics ;  the  world  is 
a  dance,  and  the  hasheesh  eater  reels  on  through  the 
whole,  the  vastest  dream  of  all. 

This  drug  exercises  a  spell  as  potent  as  that  of  opium ; 
and  the  devotees  of  each  count  by  legion  in  the  Eastern 
countries.  As  we  before  remarked,  we  are  only  re- 
minded by  the  prevalent  use  of  this  resinous  substance, 
called  hasheesh,  of  the  activity  of  human  ingenuity  in 
devising  means  to  produce  intoxication  of  the  senses, 
and  a  temporary  stimulus  of  the  mental  and  spiritual 
faculties. 


DELIRIUM   TREMENS.  261 


XXXIII. 

DELIRIUM  TREMENS. 

THIS  terrible  disease  is  the  penalty  paid  by  those  who 
indulge  in  the  excessive  use  of  strong  liquors ;  especial- 
ly the  criminally  compounded  liquors  that  are  unblush- 
ingly  sold  in  these  times  for  pure  drinks.  It  is,  in  fact, 
a  much  more  common  disease  than  is  generally  known. 
Its  symptoms  are  those  appertaining  to  the  disease  of 
insanity.  It  is  called  by  some  the  brain-fever  of  drunk- 
ards. It  commences  with  nausea,  vomiting,  and  the 
like,  and  sometimes  only  because  of  a  sudden  disuse  of 
stimulus.  It  is  not  necessary,  either,  that  the  victims 
to  it  should  have  been  notorious  drunkards ;  a  man 
who  has  always  kept  his  skin  full,  yet  screened  his  rep- 
utation from  shame  by  superior  steadiness  of  nerve,  is 
as  likely  to  succumb  to  its  frightful  assaults  as  one  who 
has  habitually  lain  in  the  gutter. 

The  disease  is  of  gradual  approach,  and  several  days 
usually  elapse  before  it  reaches  its  highest  stage  of 
riotous  power.  The  patient  is  extremely  wakeful,  in- 
clined to  walk  hurriedly  to  and  fro,  and  his  brain  is 
haunted  with  throngs  of  the  most  hideous  and  frightful 
images.  Generally  the  unhappy  victims  to  it  see  noth- 
ing but  devils  all  around  them,  these  forming  the  acme 
of  the  "  Gorgons  and  chimeras  dire  "  with  which  they 


262  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

are  beset.  Symptoms  of  decided  fever  accompany  the 
disease.  The  countenance  takes  on  an  expression  of 
alarm,  anxiety,  and  suspicion.  Suddenly  the  patient 
grows  wildly  talkative,  —  extremely  irritable,  —  and 
calls  out  for  help  from  others.  Then  he  raves,  and  is 
tormented  with  idle  fears  that  he  is  pursued,  that  he  is 
about  to  be  robbed,  or  murdered.  And  in  this  course 
he  continues  for  a  term  of  four  or  five  days,  when  the 
disease  terminates  in  a  fit  of  epilepsy  and  the  decease 
of  the  unhappy  victim. 

It  is  a  fact  well  worthy  of  general  consideration,  that 
delirium  tremens  was  comparatively,  if  not  altogether, 
unknown  among  even  immoderate  drinkers  of  strong 
liquors  in  other  days ;  and  temperance  writers  and 
temperance  orators  themselves  admit  it.  If  the  reader 
will  take  the  pains  to  turn  back  to  the  chapter  review- 
ing the  book  called  the  "  Satanic  License,"  he  will  find 
that  the  reverend  author  of  that  book  makes  this  most 
important  admission.  We  call  it  important,  because 
upon  it  hinges  the  whole  case  whose  defence,  or  rather 
whose  elucidation,  we  have  been  engaged  in  setting 
forth  in  this  volume.  For  if  it  shall  be  shown,  and 
admitted  by  candid  men,  that  it  is  owing  only  to  the 
poisoning  and  base  adulteration  of  spirits  that  these 
melancholy  cases  of  delirium  tremens  occur,  then  we 
have  all  the  stronger  right  to  insist  that  they  shall  be 
brought  to  an  end  by  the  interposition  of  statute  law. 

If  it  can  be  shown  that,  by  reason  of  this  wicked  adul- 
teration of  liquors,  this  most  criminal  compounding  of 
poisonous  ingredients,  such  a  fearful  disease  as  the 


DELIRIUM   TREMENS.  263 

delirium  tremens  is  entailed  on  the  human  race,  then 
it  plainly  follows  that  it  devolves  on  the  social  state  to 
remove  this  cause  of  the  vast  evil,  by  decreeing  that 
such  abominable  corruptions  and  compositions  shall  be 
rooted  out  of  the  land.  The  law-makers  have  plenary 
power  in  their  hands  to  do  this  thing,  and  they  know 
very  well  they  would  be  sustained  by  the  people  at 
large  in  the  enactment  of  laws  stringent  enough  to  suit 
the  case.  They  can  see  the  evil,  and  they  know  what 
is  the  most  efficient  remedy  to  apply  to  it.  And  fol- 
lowing close  upon  the  heels  of  a  statute  to  prevent  the 
adulteration  of  liquors  of  all  kinds,  would  fitly  come 
another  statute,  embodying  effective  and  stringent  pro- 
visions in  favor  of  a  proper  system  of  license. 

The  greatest  portion  of  the  evil  that  has  been  right- 
fully charged  against  rum  —  as  all  sorts  of  wines  and 
liquors  are  commonly  styled  by  fanatically  inclined 
persons  —  is  well  known  to  proceed  from  that  rum's 
being  such  vile  and  murderous  stuff.  It  was  manufac- 
tured expressly  to  destroy  both  body  and  soul.  A 
greater  degree  of  criminality  of  heart  can  hardly  be 
said  to  exist  in  the  cold  and  calculating  manslayer  than 
is  to  be  found  in  the  man  who  deliberately  and  perse- 
veringly  mixes  potent  draughts  of  poison,  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  selling  them  to  be  drank  by  those  who  buy 
them  because  they  can  get  nothing  better.  These 
draughts  may  inspire  intoxication  at  first,  but  it  is 
maddening  rather  than  exhilarating";  it  gnaws  at  the 
stomach  rather  than  diffuses  a  healthy  stimulus  all  over 
the  body  ;  it  perverts  the  taste  as  soon  as  it  passes  the 


264  THE  BAMROD  BEOKEN. 

delicate  pavement  of  the  palate,  and  craves  more  from 
the  moment  it  has  secured  its  first  gratification.  Like 
all  other  poisons,  it  does  its  work  without  mistake. 
Travelling  lecturers  on  teetotalism  show  to  astonished 
audiences  the  awful  condition  of  the  human  stomach 
that  has  imbibed  these  destroying  fluids,  by  means  of 
hideous  but  truth-telling  diagrams  and  pictures.  It  is 
indeed  a  dreadful  matter  for  any  civilized  people  to 
contemplate ;  and  we  are  glad  they  are  led,  or  even 
forced  to  do  it,  while  these  murderers  or  poisoners  of 
the  public  are  allowed  to  go  on  with  their  nefarious 
work  with  impunity.  It  is  best  that  the  truth  should 
be  pressed  upon  the  minds  of  all  continually,  so  that  if 
they  are  made  to  feel  their  responsibility  for  the  tolera- 
tion of  these  things,  there  will  be  no  sort  of  excuse  if 
they  do  not  go  to  work  and  bring  them  to  a  speedy  end. 
We  have  not  at  our  hand  any  statistics  of  this  dis- 
ease called  delirium  tremens,  and  we  question  if  any 
have  yet  been  collected  in  such  form  as  to  be  of  service 
in  showing  the  fearful  extent  of  its  ravages.  Yet 
enough  is  known  in  various  quarters,  such  as  our  pub- 
lic hospitals  and  other  similar  places,  to  certify  to  the 
lamentable  fact  that  thousands  are  afflicted  with  it 
every  year ;  and  it  is  perfectly  safe  further  to  presume, 
from  such  significant  and  numerous  facts  as  have  al- 
ready come  to  public  observation,  that  there  are  multi- 
tudes more  among  our  population  who  linger  and  die 
under  its  destructive  power,  but  whose  true  cases,  from 
reasons  of  pride  and  delicacy  on  the  part  of  friends,  are 
never  known.  It  is  a  scourge,  wrought  by  man  upon 


DELIRIUM   TREMENS.  265 

man;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be 
brought  to  an  end  by  those  who  always  have  it  in  their 
power  to  secure  that  result.  It  is  a  destroyer  whose 
liberty  ought  not  to  be  tolerated  in  a  community  styling 
itself  civilized  for  a  day ;  but  nothing  is  easier  than  for 
those  who  are  resolved  to  throttle  the  monster,  to  do  it 
without  fear  or  ceremony. 

But  fanatical  minds  are  always  impracticable  minds  ; 
that  is,  in  their  heat  and  prejudice  they  see  every  thing 
but  the  right  thing,  and  every  way  but  the  right  way, 
and  therefore  suppose  that  the  way  to  check  the  ravages 
of  this  fell  destroyer  is  to  try  to  stop  mankind's  drink- 
ing any  stimulating  drinks  at  all,  even  if  they  were  to 
be  had  pure  and  unadulterated !  This  is  merely  fanat- 
icism flying  over  to  its  other  natural  extreme  —  folly. 
For  it  cannot  be  deemed  practicable  now,  after  all  this 
long  and  futile  experimenting,  to  stop  the  consumption 
of  stimulating  drinks  by  the  community  ;  and  if  legis- 
lators are  disposed  to  attempt  it  again,  and  so  keep  on 
with  their  dead  experimenting,  they  will  suddenly  dis- 
cover that  a  more  intelligent  public  sentiment  and  a 
more  practicable  public  determination  have  availed  to 
rotate  them  all  out  of  their  position  and  their  power 
together. 

The  fact  is  simply  here  :  wines  and  spirits  will  al- 
ways be  manufactured,  and  will  always  be  sold ;  and 
the  only  question  for  legislators  to  answer  is,  whether 
they  will  permit  dealers  to  mix  the  poisonous  elements 
they  now  do,  and  sell  them  in  every  direction,  or  insist, 
on  the  other  hand,  that  none  but  pure  and  thoroughly 
23 


266  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

tested  liquors  shall  be  sold,  on  penalty  of  forfeiting  lib- 
erty itself  for  the  criminal  transgression.  This  deadly 
stream  is  not  to  be  rendered  innocuous  by  building 
fences  all  along  on  either  side  of  it,  and  telling  people 
that  they  shall  not  climb  over,  or  creep  under,  and 
drink,  on  their  peril ;  but  rather  by  following  it  up  to 
its  fountain  head,  and  there  stopping  the  flow  of  waters 
that  carry  such  certain  destruction  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  their  course. 

Hence,  we  say,  there  is  no  stronger  argument  for  a 
severe  license  law,  one  of  whose  provisions  shall  ex- 
pressly take  protecting  care  of  the  liquors  to  be  sold, 
than  the  prevalence  of  such  a  disease  as  delirium  tre- 
mens,  which  is  known  to  be  the  direct  fruit  of  poisoned 
liquors.  This  terrible  fact  stares  us  in  the  face,  and 
calls  louder  than  all  others  for  a  reform  where,  indeed, 
a  reform  can  alone  be  effective.  It  is  idle  to  talk  about 
preventing  the  use  of  liquors,  for  that  has  been  tried, 
even  at  the  expense  of  human  life  itself;  the  most  val- 
uable reformer  is  he  who  will  address  himself  to  their 
purification,  rather  than  their  banishment.  And  every 
month  proves  that  public  sentiment  is  rapidly  setting, 
in  relation  to  this  matter,  in  the  right  direction. 


THE  THREE.  —  AN  HONEST  RAMROD.      267 


XXXIV. 

THE  THREE.-AN  HONEST  RAMROD. 

THE  frontispiece  to  the  present  volume  gives  the 
reader  a  pretty  vivid  notion  of  three  distinct  classes  of 
individuals,  each  of  which  will  find  more  or  less  re- 
mark suited  to  itself  in  these  pages.  We  candidly 
consider  that  the  talented  artist  has  done  his  work  as 
he  should  do  it,  and  that  his  pencil  will  work  a  more 
thorough  reformation  in  public  opinion  than  a  vol- 
ume of  dry  temperance  discourses  could  on  the  same 
subject. 

The  individual  standing  on  the  extreme  right  of  the 
picture  represents  "  An  Honest  Eamrod ; "  that  is,  a 
man  whose  bad  digestion  inclines  him  to  hate  wine, 
and  all  other  creature  comforts,  on  principle  alone,  and 
who  dies  a  thousand  deaths  in  seeing  others  enjoying 
what  nothing  but  the  morbid  state  of  his  liver  —  which 
he  mistakes  for  his  heart  —  forbids  his  enjoying  too. 
He  looks  over  his  spectacles ;  any  one  can  see  that  it 
imparts  increased  sanctity  to  his  countenance ;  the 
little  boys  along  the  street  dare  but  to  throw  glances 
at  him,  and  secretly  wonder  if  an  angel  is  at  all  like 
that  man  for  right  down  hard  goodness.  You  cannot 
see  that  the  glasses  are  colored,  yet  whatever  he  looks 
at  seems  to  his  vision  to  be  of  a  yellow  hue.  That 


268  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

proceeds  from  his  liver  again.  He  is  affected  with  the 
jaundice,  in  consequence  of  his  indigestion,  and  all  ob- 
jects of  course  take  on  a  saffron  tint.  The  thoughtful 
style,  however,  in  which  he  throws  his  telescopic  glance 
over  his  spectacles,  as  far  forward  into  the  misty  future 
as  he  can  make  it  go,  is  peculiar  to  the  Ramrod  style 
of  man,  and,  we  ought  conscientiously  to  add,  as  be- 
coming as  it  is  peculiar.  One  of  Burns's  songs,  now, 
sung  on  a  roistering  key  in  that  excellent  gentleman's 
ears,  —  we  do  not  discover  that  they  are  extremely  long 
ears,  either,  —  would  give  him  a  shock  that  he  would 
carry  with  him  into  his  grave. 

Poor,  honest,  unhappy  man!  How  we  pity  him! 
He  carries  his  Bible  on  his  arm,  as  if  it  were  a  cross 
upon  his  back.  See  what  a  weight  it  is  upon  him. 
He  would  bow  under  it,  if  that  would  make  him  look 
any  more  meek.  Between  the  covers  of  that  Bible 
he  believes  he  has  found  the  sum  of  all  truth ;  and 
that  amount  is  comprised  in  spurning  the  good  gifts 
of  Heaven,  and  making  himself  acceptable  by  going 
without  altogether.  It  is  a  sorry  mistake,  but  few  men 
get  so  much  comfort  out  of  theiu  misery  as  he  does ; 
and  all  that  is  to  be  said  in  his  favor.  That  book  —  as 
he  believes  —  teaches  him  to  turn  his  face  the  other 
way,  when  he  is  obliged  to  pass  a  cider  mill ;  to  salute 
the  fresh  apple  blossoms  of  spring  with  the  grimmest 
smile  that  ever  played  about  a  human  mouth  ;  to  bless 
God  that  he  never  tasted  any  thing  delicious  in  grapes ; 
and  to  inwardly  declare  that  the  beautiful  miracle  at 
Cana  of  Galilee  was  one  of  the  most  mistaken  examples 


THE  THREE.  —  AN   HONEST  RAMROD.  269 

a  truly  divine  teacher  could  have  allowed  himself  to 
set  for  his  followers. 

His  faith  and  stomach  combined  have  had  the  effect 
to  start  ugly  puckers,  in  the  form  of  wrinkles,  all  over 
his  face.  Such  a  faith  ought  to  be  too  much  for  any 
constitution  ;  it  ought  to  wear  a  man  out,  and,  in  due 
time,  it  will  him.  The  Almighty  will  not  consent  to 
keep  one  of  his  children  shut  up  here  on  this  earth, 
while  he  betrays  such  dissatisfaction  with  every  thing 
around  him ;  he  will  suffer  his  ill  digestion  to  take  him 
off  as  soon  as  it  may. 

The  slenderness  of  this  gentleman's  outline,  elegant 
as  it  is  in  the  eye  of  art,  is  likewise  to  be  attributed  to 
the  operation  of  his  faith.  That  is  enough  to  take  the 
flesh  off  of  any  man.  To  get  fat  on  his  sort  of  faith 
would  be  as  difficult  as  to  make  a  breakfast  off  a  raw 
east  wind ;  that  has  been  tried,  but  never  would  suc- 
ceed. This  class  of  individuals  are  never  gross  crea- 
tures ;  their  very  honesty  forbids  that.  They  look  like 
walking  clothes-pins,  with  coats  on  ;  where  they  find 
their  tailors,  is  a  mystery. 

Yet  these  poor  Ramrods  are  not  to  be  looked  on  with 
contempt,  by  any  means.  Miserable  as  they  look,  and 
miserable  indeed  as  they  are,  they  are  nevertheless  honest 
in  their  wretchedness.  They  have  disordered  livers, 
spleen,  indigestion,  and  all  manner  of  bad  humors, 
simply  because  they  believe  these  to  be  conditions  of 
happiness  ;  else  they  never  would  go  in  for  them  at  the 
killing  rate  they  do.  Do  you  think  they  believe  in 
youth  ?  —  not  they !  They  are  entirely  opposed  to  all 
23* 


270  THE  BAMROD  BROKEN. 

sorts  of  spirits,  even  to  the  frolicsome  spirits  of  chil- 
dren. Other  people's  happiness  is  their  misery.  If 
they  must  take  cider  —  which  God  forbid!  —  let  them 
have  it  hard,  and  made  of  the  genuine  crab,  or  even  of 
the  persimmon ! 

Were  it  not  for  their  honesty,  we  should  despise 
them  ;  but  your  really  honest  Ramrod  is  an  honest  man 
indeed.  Otherwise,  what  could  induce  him  to  forego 
all  the  comforts  and  pleasures  that  make  so  many  oth- 
ers happy  ?  Or  what  could  prompt  him  to  hate  even 
goodness  itself,  if  it  must  be  had  only  with  the  aids  of 
cheerfulness  and  contentment  ?  He  loves  only  that 
half  of  his  Bible  which  agrees  with  his  views,  while  the 
other  half  he  believes  to  be  either  a  mistake,  or  incor- 
rectly translated  ;  himself  he  loathes  from  the  crown 
of  his  head  to  the  sole  of  his  feet ;  he  cannot  think  why 
God  placed  him  here,  unless  it  was  to  show  up  human 
unworthiness  in  its  very  worst  aspect ;  he  believes  that 
as  there  is  nothing  good  in  man,  so  there  is  nothing 
good  in  nature  ;  and  he  is  down  upon  wine  and  cider, 
and  even  small  beer,  with  all  the  truculent  fierceness 
of  his  "  totally  depraved  "  nature.  The  honest,  but 
wretched  creature !  how  we  pity  him !  He  does  not 
understand  what  he  was  born  for,  and  so  carries  about 
his  Bible  with  him,  and  exclaims  continually,  "  We  are 
all  poor  worms  !  we  are  all  miserable  sinners !  " 

A   DRINKING   HYPOCRITE. 

Our  friend  on  the  extreme  left  of  the  picture  stands 
in  exact  and  entire  contrast  to  the  honest  Ramrod ; 


THE   THREE.  —  A  DRINKING  HYPOCRITE.  271 

for  while  the  latter  is  in  all  respects  conscientious  in 
his  conduct  and  belief,  the  former  is  a  walking  false- 
hood, a  speaking  volume  of  hypocrisy  and  deceit. •  He 
guzzles  all  the  while,  and  talks  temperance,  and  even 
teetotalism,  with  as  much  gusto  as  if  he  had  never 
tasted  a  drop  in  his  life.  It  is  this  very  trait  that  makes 
him  contemptible.  Nay,  more  ;  he  is  one  of  the  most 
malignant  deceivers  any  community  holds  ;  for  it  is 
from  such  as  he  that  it  learns  hypocrisy,  and  from  lips 
like  his  are  poured  out  that  lava-tide  of  backbiting  and 
lies  which  may  well  be  esteemed  the  worst  infliction 
any  community  can  endure. 

His  very  face  tells  the  story  for  him.  See  how 
blotched  and  pimply  it  is  ;  behold  the  unornamental 
knob  on  the  end  of  his  nose ;  as  if  a  man  with  such  a 
nasal  organ  as  that  could  by  earthly  possibility  be  any 
thing  else  than  a  drunkard ;  watch  the  leering  look 
that  slips  out  of  his  eyes,  hinting  to  you  that  he  hardly 
expects  you  to  believe  him,  and  more  than  half  won- 
dering if  you  do  ;  see  the  unsteady  attitude,  and  the 
total  want  of  true  manly  character  expressed  in  his 
whole  carriage ;  see  with  what  pains  he  attempts  to 
make  it  appear  that  he  is  a  sober  and  moral  citizen  by 
buttoning  about  him  a  decent  exterior,  while  he  knows 
and  feels  that  all  within  is  corruption  itself.  This  class 
of  men  are  by  no  means  rare.  They  may  be  found  on 
every  corner.  They  grow  on  almost  every  bush.  If 
you  hear  a  person  talking  over-loud  and  over-earnestly 
in  favor  of  temperance  reform,  and  especially  of  their 
desire  to  see  the  liquor  law  enforced  to  the  last  letter, 


272  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

look  twice,  and  behold  a  hypocrite  and  a  drunkard  on 
principle,  for  you  cannot  very  well  have  gone  wide  of 
your  calculation.  He  always  wants  to  see  the  law  en- 
forced upon  somebody  else  ;  himself  he  considers  per- 
fectly safe  from  its  reach. 

The  motive  for  his  hypocrisy  is  apparent  enough ;  it 
is  quite  plain  why  he  talks  so  loudly  and  earnestly  in 
favor  of  the  stringent  execution  of  the  most  stringent 
law ;  it  is  because  he  would  be  thought  what  he  is  not, 
—  because,  knowing  his  own  guilty  habits  and  prac- 
tices, he  seeks  to  call  off  public  attention  from  them  by 
crying  out  against  something  else.  That  is  the  whole 
secret  of  it.  Such  tricks  are  no  new  thing ;  they  have 
been  tried  before  ;  it  has  always  been  considered  a 
shrewd  game  by  corrupt  men  to  seem  to  be  what  they 
are  not,  by  charging  upon  others  the  vices  they  practise 
themselves,  —  and  our  contemptible  friend  on  the  left 
of  the  frontispiece  represents  exactly  one  of  that  class 
of  would-be  shrewd  men.  But  his  very  countenance, 
unfortunately  for  his  pretensions,  lets  the  cat  out  of  the 
bag  for  him  ;  that  hypocritical  expression,  that  knobby 
nose,  that  pimpled  face,  that  leering  and  lying  eye, 
each  betrays  him. 

He  never  drinks  a  glass  of  liquor  for  the  pleasure  of 
the  thing,  —  not  he  !  He  never  uses  liquor  at  all,  un- 
less it  is  for  a  medicine  ;  and,  for  that  matter,  he  man- 
ages to  be  ailing  about  all  the  while.  He  wears  a 
diseased,  anxious,  medicated  look  continually.  He  is 
never  well,  and  of  course  he  never  presumes  to  look  as 
if  he  were  well.  He  is  forever  sick  on  principle.  He 


THE   THREE. — A   DRINKING   HYPOCRITE.  273 

goes  to  the  agency  —  State  or  town  —  for  all  his  rum, 
and  has  a  new  complaint,  or  an  old  complaint  in  a  new 
place,  every  time  he  makes  his  application.  The  town 
agent  cannot  help  wondering  —  if  he  is  a  conscientious 
rumseller  —  how  it  is  such  a  man  can  live  along  in  this 
way,  and  still  be  so  sick  all  the  while ;  and  well  may 
he  wonder,  and  satisfy  his  curiosity  in  wondering.  The 
expressions  of  illness  and  hypocrisy  are  so  adroitly 
blended  in  his  countenance,  that  a  close  observer  would 
at  once  declare  this  was  the  sickest  hypocrite  he  ever 
saw. 

Such  are  the  men  who  are  red-hot  with  the  desire  to 
see  the  Maine  Law  carried  out  in  all  its  severity.  Such 
are  the  men  who  desire  nothing  so  much  as  to  exercise 
supervision  and  authority  over  the  appetites  of  others. 
Such  are  the  men  who  talk  the  loudest  against  the 
vices,  arid  even  against  the  foibles,  of  their  neighbors, 
as  if  they  had  nothing  of  the  kind  of  their  own.  This 
fellow  in  the  picture  probably  has  as  little  charity  for 
others  as  any  man  that  lives ;  and  he  asks  the  charity 
of  nobody  else  in  return.  Instead  of  appealing  to  that, 
he  prefers  to  try  his  art  of  deceiving  others  into  the 
belief  that  he  is  upright  and  pure  himself,  needing  no 
such  favor  as  charity  at  any  body's  hands.  He  would 
be  thought  a  reformer ;  and  yet  he  is  the  meanest  type 
of  a  drunkard.  He  would  be  esteemed  a  temperate 
man,  if  not  a  teetotaler ;  and  yet  he  keeps  his  skin  as 
full  of  poor  agency  rum  all  the  while  as  it  can  hold. 
He  would  have  all  persons  believe  him  ;  and  he  is  the 
veriest  liar  that  wears  boots. 


274  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

No  cause,  however  good,  can  be  helped  on  by  hypo- 
critical practices.  No  man  will  be  fool  enough  to 
believe  what  such  a  fellow  says  about  the  virtues  of 
teetotalism,  or  even  of  temperance,  while  he  sneaks  off 
afterwards  and  takes  a  stolen  drink  of  agency  rum  be- 
hind the  door.  These  fellows  are  the  co-workers,  or 
would  be  thought  so,  with  the  rest ;  but  it  would  be  a 
thousand  fold  better  to  kick  them  off  without  hesita- 
tion. Compared  with  him,  we  fairly  honor  and  love 
the  honest  old  Ramrod  over  against  him,  because  we 
believe  that  he,  at  least,  is  honest ;  that  expression  on 
his  countenance  is  not  the  expression  of  a  hypocrite, 
but  of  a  man  whose  liver  is  out  of  order,  and  who  takes 
wrong  views  of  things.  But  this  drunkard  on  the  left 
is  a  hypocrite  ;  he  insults  you  while  he  stands  in  your 
presence ;  he  abuses  you  whenever  he  opens  his  mouth ; 
he  corrupts  the  moral  atmosphere  with  which  he  hap- 
pens to  be  surrounded ;  and  we  only  wish  for  him  that 
old  Ramrod  may  have  the  final  settlement  of  his  per- 
sonal accounts ! 

AN   OLD-FASHIONED   BIBLE   CHRISTIAN. 

He  will  bear  looking  at ;  he  stands  in  the  middle  of 
the  picture.  All  the  children  would  love  him,  because 
they  couldn't  help  it.  He  carries  the  certificate  of  his 
righteousness  in  the  very  lines  of  his  countenance.  On 
comparing  him  with  the  honest  old  Ramrod  who  stands 
facing  him,  one  would  hardly  suppose  they  were  dwellers 
upon  the  same  planet,  while  to  imagine  them  descend- 
ants from  a  common  ancestor  would  be  preposterous. 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED   BIBLE   CHRISTIAN.  275 

His  skin  is  full  of  the  juices  of  good  humor  and  loving 
kindness.  His  bosom  overflows  with  the  milk  of  hu- 
man kindness.  His  malignant  enemies  come  in  the 
night  and  girdle  his  apple  trees,  or  cut  down  his  choice 
and  well-tended  grape  vines,  and  he  strolls  out  to  be- 
hold the  mischief  on  the  next  day,  —  not  cursing  them 
either  with  his  lips  or  in  his  heart,  but  blessing  Heaven 
that  even  the  consolation  of  innocent  beer  is  still 
left  him. 

He  excites  no  hostility  between  neighbors,  and  wages 
no  wars  of  passion  to  prove  that  he  holds  his  Christian 
principles  in  real  earnest.  The  influence  he  exerts  on 
those  around  him  is  one  entirely  of  charity  and  peace. 
He  doesn't  look  in  the  least  like  a  Neal  Dow  man, 
though  he  would  probably  be  as  glad  to  see  the  evil  of 
intemperance  swept  out  of  existence  as  Neal  Dow  him- 
self. You  discover  none  of  the  riot  disposition  in  the 
expression  of  his  face,  in  his  posture,  or  in  his  general 
make-up.  He  is  evidently  of  opinion  that  life  is  too 
precious  to  be  thrown  away  in  quarrels,  when  it  can  be 
made  so  much  more  productive  by  the  operation  of  a 
steady  and  beautiful  example,  by  the  promulgation  of 
the  purest  morals,  and  by  the  exercise  of  a  sweet  for- 
bearance and  comprehensive  charity.  "  Girdled  my 
trees,  have  they?"  he  seems  to  say  to  himself;  "but 
what  do  they  expect  to  accomplish  by  that?  They 
can't  excite  me  to  do  the  same  thing  to  them  —  they 
can't  stop  my  using  cider,  or  wine  —  and  they  can't 
force  me  even  to  hate  them,  for  I  only  pity  them ! 
But,  thank  God,  there  is  a  power  in  kindness,  in  moral 


276  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

suasion,  and  I  am  bound  to  repose  upon  that.  If  these 
midnight  marauders  come  to  see  me,  I  shall  treat  them 
well,  and  show  them  how  I  can  punish  them  by  pitying 
and  forgiving  them ;  as  for  going  to  law  about  it,  and 
having  the  whole  community  by  the  ears,  I  shall  do  no 
such  foolish  thing !  " 

This  man,  now,  believes  in  the  real  doctrines  of  the 
Bible  ;  such  as  those  of  forgiveness  and  charity.  And 
he  would  perform  ten  thousand  times  as  wide  and  per- 
manent a  work  with  that  benignant  countenance  and 
warm  heart  of  his,  as  any  professed  reformer,  with  a 
rigid  law  and  the  soldiery  at  his  back,  could  perform  in 
a  dozen  lifetimes.  He  would  make  all  things  beautiful 
and  harmonious  around  him.  The  feelings  of  no  man, 
friend  or  foe,  should  be  injured  by  act  or  word  of  his. 
While  his  convictions  necessarily  lead  him  to  the  con- 
clusion that  licensing  is  the  only  method  by  which  the 
indiscriminate  sale  of  poisoned  liquors  can  be  stopped, 
he  confesses  that  no  law  can  supply  the  place  of  moral 
suasion  in  converting  and  reforming  the  individual 
whose  appetite  has  hitherto  had  dominion  over  him. 
He  is  ready  to  help  along  such  temperance  lecturers  as 
generously  as  means  and  sympathy  will  permit ;  and 
what  he  gives,  he  gives  ungrudgingly,  and  not  for  effect 
and  show.  What  he  does,  likewise,  he  does  from  the 
impulse  of  a  noble  and  generous  heart ;  there  is  no 
gainsaying  it,  than  an  act  of  his  on  this  side  or  that 
carries  much,  more  than  the  ordinary  weight  with  it, 
because  he  puts  his  heart  into  his  deed,  and  thus  hal- 
lows it. 


AN   OLD-FASHIONED  BIBLE   CHRISTIAN.  277 

We  love  to  contrast  such  a  man  with  Ramrod,  be- 
cause it  shows  us  the  fallacy  of  looking  at  the  world 
through  a  poor  medium  ;  but  to  think  of  comparing 
this  genuine,  old-fashioned,  Bible  Christian  with  a  fel- 
low like  that  drunken  hypocrite,  upon  whom  he  has 
properly  turned  his  back,  is  more  than  we  can  well  do. 
Our  Christian  friend,  we  remarked,  does  not  bear  a 
spirit  of  hatred  towards  any  body ;  but  he  does  hate 
this  knavish  drunkard's  hypocrisy  with  all  the  hearti- 
ness and  spontaneity  of  his  honest  nature.  The  slime 
of  a  serpent  like  that  he  will  freely  caution  all  men  to  step 
out  of  the  way  of;  he  will  denounce  that  Phariseeism 
with  his  last  breath,  nor  refuse  to  shake  his  cane,  like- 
wise, by  way  of  giving  emphasis  to  his  gesture.  He 
feels  that  it  is  right  for  him  to  hate  hypocrisy,  and  he 
knows  very  well  that  he  could  not  do  otherwise  ;  be- 
cause he  is  no  hypocrite  himself,  and  cannot  endure  to 
see  the  acts  of  a  hypocrite  played  off  upon  others. 


Here  are  the  three  men,  therefore,  representatives 
of  a  large  class,  each  of  them.  Reader,  tell  us  which 
one  strikes  your  fancy.  Which  would  you  choose  for 
your  friend  —  your  confidant  —  your  counsellor  ?  Can 
you  accept  the  bilious  misery  of  old  Ramrod,  and  call 
such  a  life  as  he  leads  living  ?  Will  you  take  up  with 
the  practices  of  the  knavish  guzzler  on  the  left,  and 
call  them  any  thing  else  than  corruption,  and  the 
meanest  sort  of  hypocrisy  ?  Or,  on  reviewing  the  field, 
does  not  the  old-fashioned  Bible  Christian  meet  your 
24 


278  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

views  of  the  case,  and  is  he  not  the  most  thorough  rep- 
resentation of  the  true  reformatory  idea  ? 

We  must  all  of  us  be  classed  under  one  of  these  three 
heads.  Reader,  where  are  you?  For  ourselves,  we 
shake  hands  with  our  friend  in  the  centre  of  the  pic- 
ture, and  will  agree  to  send  him  a  plentiful  supply  of 
sweet  cider  next  autumn. 


THE   USE  OF   TOBACCO.  279 


XXXV. 

THE  USE   OF  TOBACCO. 

THIS  weed  holds  a  high  place  in  the  list  of  narcotics, 
and  is  probably  used  as  extensively  as  any  other.  Very 
few  people  in  this  country,  compared  with  the  entire 
body  of  the  adult  population,  but  are  addicted  to  to- 
bacco in  one  form  or  another ;  they  take  it  in  the  form 
of  snuff,  or  they  smoke  or  chew  it.  Such  a  statement 
may  well  be  thought  astonishing,  when  it  is  known 
that  it  is  naturally  productive  of  nausea,  and  that  it 
works  emphatic  injury  to  the  nervous  system ;  but 
these  drawbacks  fail  to  have  the  effect  we  should  sup- 
pose they  would  upon  those  who  habitually  use  the 
weed.  Still,  there  are  not  a  few  who  are  entirely  ig- 
norant of  its  pernicious  effects,  and  hence  go  on  in  the 
way  they  do  with  no  knowledge  of  the  certain  results. 

Inasmuch  as  tobacco  is  so  commonly  used,  it  is 
proper  that  its  power  and  the  effects  of  its  consumption 
should  be  set  down  along  with  the  fact  of  its  general 
use.  It  is  called,  then,  by  chemists,  a  virulent  and 
active  poison.  Three  drops  of  the  distilled  oil  of  to- 
bacco, dropped  on  the  tongue  of  a  cat,  will  cause  her 
death  in  a  few  minutes ;  and  a  tobacco  poultice,  ap- 
plied to  the  pit  of  the  stomach,  causes  terrible  vomitings 
in  a  very  short  time.  It  likewise  t)roduces  similar 


280  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

effects  when  applied  to  the  head.  A  French  physician, 
who  had  experimented  with  the  weed,  gives  the  follow- 
ing piece  of  experience  :  "  I  made  a  small  incision  in  a 
pigeon's  leg,  and  applied  to  it  the  oil  of  tobacco ;  in 
two  minutes  it  lost  the  use  of  its  foot.  I  repeated  this 
experiment  on  another  pigeon,  and  the  event  was  ex- 
actly the  same.  I  made  a  small  wound  in  the  pectoral 
muscles  of  a  pigeon,  and  applied  the  oil  to  it ;  in  three 
minutes  the  animal  could  no  longer  support  itself  on 
its  left  foot.  This  experiment,  repeated  on  another 
pigeon,  ended  the  same  way.  I  introduced  into  the 
pectoral  muscles  of  a  pigeon  a  small  bit  of  wood  cov- 
ered with  this  oil ;  the  pigeon  in  a  few  seconds  fell 
insensible.  Two  other  pigeons,  to  whom  I  applied  this 
oil,  vomited  several  times  all  that  they  had  eaten. 
Two  others,  with  empty  stomachs,  treated  as  above, 
made  all  possible  efforts  to  vomit.  Vomiting  was  the 
most  constant  effect  of  this  oil." 

Applied  in  almost  any  form,  tobacco  will  produce  a 
similar  effect.  Chemists  at  once  classify  it  with  the 
vegetable  poisons.  It  is  said  that  scurvy  abounds  much 
more  since  the  general  use  of  tobacco,  than  ever  before. 
The  use  of  snuff  is  said,  also,  to  have  produced  apo- 
plexy in  a  great  many  instances.  In  smoking,  it  is 
well  known  that  a  great  deal  of  saliva  is  wasted  that 
would  otherwise  assist  in  the  digestion  of  food  ;  and 
hence  it  cannot  be  esteemed  conducive  to  health  to  get 
rid  of  an  agent  so  essential  in  the  animal  economy. 
Chewing  uses  up  much  more  of  this  important  liquid 
than  smoking.  Darwin  says,  in  his  Zoonomia,  "  The 


THE   USE  OP  TOBACCO.  281 

unwise  custom  of  chewing  and  smoking  tobacco  for 
many  hours  in  the  day,  not  only  injures  the  salivary 
glands,  producing  dryness  in  the  mouth  when  this  drug 
is  not  used,  but  I  suspect  that  it  also  produces  scirrhus 
of  the  pancreas.  The  use  of  tobacco  in  this  immod- 
erate degree  injures  the  power  of  digestion,  by  occasion- 
ing the  patient  to  spit  out  that  saliva  which  he  ought 
to  swallow,  and  hence  produces  that  flatulency  which 
the  vulgar  unfortunately  take  it  to  prevent." 

There  is  another  consideration.  Not  only  does  to- 
bacco use  up  the  saliva  which  ought  to  be  used  in  the 
digestion  of  the  food,  but  it  so  thoroughly  saturates  the 
tongue  and  mouth  with  tobacco  juice,  that  it  vitiates 
the  saliva  that  remains,  which,  in  this  poisoned  condi- 
tion, finds  its  way  to  the  stomach.  "  It  seems,"  says 
one  writer  on  the  subject,  "  to  act  directly  upon  the 
nervous  system,  enfeebling,  exhausting,  or  destroying 
the  powers  of  life."  It  affects  the  sensibility  of  the 
membrane  that  forms  the  lining  of  the  nose,  mouth, 
and  stomach,  and  thus  directly  causes  dyspepsia.  An 
eminent  surgeon  declares  that  of  the  cases  of  cancer  of 
the  under  lip  that  have  come  under  his  observation,  all 
but  three  were  those  of  individuals  who  had,  at  some 
period  of  their  lives,  used  tobacco  in  some  one  of  its 
forms.  De  Bomare  says  of  the  habit  of  taking  snuff, 
u  The  least  evil  which  you  can  expect  it  to  produce  is, 
to  dry  up  the  brain,  emaciate  the  body,  enfeeble  the 
memory,  and  destroy,  if  not  entirely,  yet  in  a  great 
measure,  the  delicate  sense  of  smelling." 

It  is  thought  by  many  that  chewing  tobacco  is  a 
24* 


282  THE  KAMROD   BROKEN. 

preservative  of  the  teeth ;  but  competent  medical  au- 
thority assures  us  that  both  chewing  and  smoking  wear 
down,  or  absorb,  the  grinding  surface  of  the  teeth 
much  faster  than  would  otherwise  be  the  case.  So 
active  a  poison  as  the  smoke  or  juice  of  tobacco,  con- 
tinually in  contact  with  the  surface  of  the  teeth,  must 
tend  to  destroy  their  vitality,  and  consequently  to 
hasten,  instead  of  retard,  their  decay.  A  German 
paper  speaks  further  of  the  excessive  use  of  the  weed 
having  produced  vertigo,  blindness,  and  paralysis.  It 
causes,  also,  a  dryness  of  the  throat,  which  in  turn  calls 
for  something  of  a  stimulating  nature  to  allay  the  new 
thirst.  "  To  this  dark  catalogue  of  evils,"  says  a  dis- 
tinguished medical  writer,  "  arising  from  the  use  of 
tobacco,  may  be  added  the  turbid  nostril,  the  besmeared 
lip,  the  spitting  of  saliva,  imbued  with  this  baneful 
narcotic  upon  the  floor,  furniture,  and  even  upon  the 
clothes  of  those  around  them;  and  last,  though  not 
least,  the  foul  and  offensive  breath,  which,  to  those 
whose  olfactories  have  not  been  perverted  by  the  use  of 
narcotics,  is  almost  insupportable." 

Blasts  against  the  use  of  tobacco  in  any  form,  and 
counterblasts  likewise,  have  been  issued  from  time 
"  beyond  which  the  mind  of  man  runneth  not  to  the 
contrary."  But  thus  far  to  no  purpose  at  all.  If 
people  wrould  only  be  more  particular  in  the  business 
of  spitting,  and  spirting,  and  squirting,  we  think  we 
should  be  less  anxious  on  the  score  of  their  health  from 
the  use  of  the  weed  ;  but,  in  our  opinion,  considered  as 
a  social  question,  the  gravest  and  most  offensive  charge 
that  can  be  brought  against  the  use  of  tobacco  is,  that 


THE   USE  OF   TOBACCO.  283 

it  is  instrumental  in  daubing  us  all  over  with  saliva 
that  does  not  belong  to  us.  In  the  famous  Counterblast 
of  King  James  against  tobacco,  he  concludes  the  sub- 
ject in  the  following  strain :  "  A  custom  loathsome  to 
the  eye,  hateful  to  the  nose,  harmful  to  the  brain,  dan- 
gerous to  the  lungs,  and,  in  the  black,  stinking  fume 
thereof,  nearest  resembling  the  horrible  stygian  smoke 
of  the  pit  that  is  bottomless."  This  is  strong,  but  we 
are  not  inclined  to  question  a  line  of  its  accuracy. 

We  do  not  advise  any  one  to  leave  off  the  use  of  to-" 
bacco,  if,  after  being  put  in  possession  of  facts  like 
these,  he  is  confident  it  does  not  injure  him  ;  but  if  he 
already  confesses  himself  a  slave  to  the  habit,  then  it 
is  manifestly  high  time  he  took  some  steps  towards  self- 
emancipation.  We  do  not  use  tobacco  in  any  form 
ourselves,  and  are  ignorant  of  the  temptation  that  would 
be  strong  enough  to  induce  us  to  do  so  ;  still,  we  de- 
nounce nobody  else  for  doing  what  we  choose  not  to 
do  ;  that  is  not  to  our  temper  at  all.  We  would  have 
every  one  go  at  the  prosecution  of  his  indulgence  in 
the  weed  with  his  eyes  open  on  the  subject,  merely 
imploring  him  not  to  bedaub  his  friends  with  the  saliva 
which,  we  think,  he  might  as  well  "  keep  at  home." 
And  we  would  particularly  remind  those  devotees  of 
tobacco  who  style  themselves  "Sons  of  Temperance," 
and  who  are  continually  crying  out  against  the  habits 
of  other  people,  to  carefully  examine  the  following  pas- 
sage of  Scripture,  (Matt.  vii.  5,)  "  First  cast  out  the 
beam  out  of  thine  own  eye,  and  then  shalt  thou  see 
clearly  to  cast  out  the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye." 


284  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 


XXXVI. 

TEA  AND    COFFEE. 

THERE  are  those  who  believe  that  the  use  of  these 
stimulants  is  decidedly  injurious,  and  therefore  think 
it  necessary  that  they  should  froth  at  the  mouth  at  all 
others  .who  do  not  incline  to  follow  their  advice  in  the 
matter.  For  ourselves,  we  entertain  no  sort  of  enmity 
to  the  above  drinks.  Our  grandmothers  —  God's  peace 
be  with  them  —  used  to  drink  both,  and  drink  them 
freely.  Our  mothers  —  may  their  days  be  many  —  still 
use  them  as  a  beverage,  and,  while  we  live,  we  mean 
to  enjoy  them  also. 

Dr.  Beach,  an  eminent  physician  of  the  old  school, 
says  in  respect  to  these  beverages,  in  his  volume  en- 
titled "  The  Family  Physician,"  "  Tea  and  coffee  are 
injurious,  especially  to  invalids,  dyspeptic  and  nervous 
people  ;  they  produce  debility,  hysterics,  and  other  evil 
consequences.  Tea  and  coffee,  being  both  narcotic,  or 
poisonous,  have  many  ill  effects,  by  impairing  the  pow- 
ers of  the  stomach,  producing  various  nervous  symp- 
toms, palpitations  of  the  heart,  restlessness,  headache, 
a  pale  and  sallow  hue  of  the  skin,  and  all  the  usual 
train  of  morbid  feelings  which  accompany  dyspepsia." 

We  are  aware  that  a  great  many  people  indorse  the 
views  of  Dr.  Beach,  and  would  just  as  soon  swallow 


TEA  AND   COFFEE.  285 

arsenic  as  either  tea  or  coffee.  "With  some  particular 
constitutions,  or  in  certain  states  of  health,  it  is  ad- 
mitted that  tea  and  coffee  do  not  agree,  and  the  pos- 
sessors of  such  constitutions  we  would  advise  to  drink 
something  else  ;  but  for  the  great  majority  of  people 
we  know  that  tea  and  coffee  are  both  agreeable  and 
healthy,  and  to  such  we  would  frankly  say,  "  Don't  be 
scared !  they  are  narcotics,  in  a  degree,  to  be  sure ; 
but  the  Arab  lives  almost  wholly  on  a  coffee  diet,  and 
drinks  it  strong ;  he  is  hardy  and  healthy,  and  is  ca- 
pable of  a  vast  amount  of  endurance.  The  Chinese 
drink  strong  decoctions  of  tea,  from  the  cradle  to  the 
grave  ;  and  they  generally  manage  to  make  a  long  jour- 
ney of  it,  too  ;  there  seems  to  be  no  immediate  danger 
of  the  Celestial  race  of  mortals  becoming  extinct. 

We  insist,  in  this  place  again,  that  each  one  is  to  be 
left  to  be  his  own  judge  in  the  matter  of  food  and  drink, 
and  ought  to  be  able  to  decide,  if  thus  left  to  his  indi- 
vidual discretion,  what  best  suits  his  health,  and  secures 
to  him  happiness.  But  "  as  ye  would  that  men  should 
do  to  you,  do  ye  also  to  them  likewise  ; "  and  if  you 
wish  to  stimulate  your  systems  with  tea  and  coffee,  or 
tobacco  in  its  various  forms,  pray  be  so  much  of  a  Chris- 
tian as  to  allow  us  to  take  what  is  better  and  healthier 
for  our  constitutions  than  any  of  your  favorite  beverages, 
viz.,  a  little  pure  and  unadulterated  wine,  or  whiskey. 

The  ancient  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  produced  an 
intoxicating  drink  by  fermenting  a  preparation  of  maize, 
or  Indian  corn  ;  and  the  Hebrew  people  must  have  had 
something  similar,  for  the  Bible  says,  "  Corn  shall  make 


286  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

the  young  men  cheerful,  and  new  wine  the  maids." 
'  (*Zechariah  ix.  17.)  We  have  shown  beyond  reason- 
able dispute,  in  the  course  of  these  pages,  that  some 
sort  of  narcotic,  or  stimulant,  has  been  prepared  and 
used  by  every  nation  known  to  history  ;  and  the  infer- 
ence is  a  fair  and  strong  one,  that  all  nations  will  con- 
tinue the  practice  ;  it  is  merely  a  practice  based  on  the 
common  instincts  of  human  nature.  Many  people,  in 
giving  reflection  to  this  matter,  become  infected,  with- 
out seeming  to  know  it,  with  a  species  of  fanaticism,  or 
insanity;  they  think  they  see  one  point  clearly,  and 
straightway  surrender  their  estimate  of  all  other  points 
to  their  estimate  of  this.  So  good  and  famous  a  man 
as  Dr.  Thomas  Dick,  of  Scotland,  went  even  so  far  as 
to  say  it  was  not  compatible  ivith  a  state  of  innocence 
to  take  the  life  of  any  sensitive  being  and  feed  on  its 
flesh  !  and  that,  consequently,  no  such  grant  was  given 
to  Adam  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  or  to  the  antedilu- 
vians !  He  considered  it  a  grant  only  fitted  to  the  state 
of  man  after  the  flood.  Another  writer  of  eminence, 
also,  Dr.  Cheyne,  says  he  is  almost  convinced  that  ani- 
mal food  was  never  intended,  but  only  permitted  as  a 
curse  or  punishment,  and  a  cure  for  a  malady,  being 
adapted  to  a  corrupt  state  of  man :  1st.  To  let  him  feel 
and  experience  the  natural  and  necessary  effects  of  his 
own  lusts  by  painful  diseases  ;  2d.  To  shorten  the  du- 
ration of  his  natural  life,  that  sin  and  misery  might  not 
increase  infinitely  !  This  looks  as  if  the  writer  thought 
the  Almighty  had  made  a  mistake  in  the  creation  of 
man,  and  was  eager  to  rectify  it  as  soon  as  possible. 


TEA   AND   COFFEE.  287 

Tea  and  coffee  have  been  used  long  enough,  and 
commonly  enough,  to  establish  the  fact  that,  as  an  ar- 
ticle of  diet,  they  are  not  merely  harmless,  but  even 
necessary  to  most  human  constitutions.  For  our  own 
part,  we  use  them  regularly,  and  to  no  disadvantage 
whatever  ;  and  we  insist  on  every  body  else  having  the 
same  privilege.  And  we  have  not  the  slightest  objec- 
tions to  others  using  the  genuine  corn  tea,  too,  pro- 
vided it  is  only  pure  and  unadulterated.  In  proper 
quantities,  and  at  proper  times,  it  is  as  beneficial  as  the 
tea  grown  in  China ;  and  only  popular  prejudice  clam- 
ors against  it.  Others  may  do  as  they  see  fit ;  while 
they  continue  rational  beings,  we  wish  by  all  means  to 
have  them  do  so.  For  ourselves,  we  claim  no  other 
privilege  in  these  matters  than  we  are  perfectly  ready 
to  accord  to  others. 


288  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 


XXXVII. 

MORAL   SUASION. 

AFTER  carefully  surveying  the  whole  ground,  it  is 
evident  that  we  must  at  last  fall  back  upon  moral  sua- 
sion. We  have  seen  that  force  itself  has  been  tried, 
but  it  has  shown  us  that  it  is  the  last  thing  on  which 
we  can  rely.  A  law  to  prevent  the  consumption  of 
stimulating  drinks  has  long  since  proved  itself  an  im- 
possibility. Men  will  use  stimulus,  and  no  law  on 
earth  can  prevent  it.  We  have  shown  in  this  volume, 
from  abundant  historical  records,  that  such  has  always 
been  the  case,  and  it  is  safe  to  presume  that  such  ever 
will  be.  It  may  be  argued,  we  very  well  know,  that, 
as  mankind  advance  in  true  civilization,  they  will  be 
more  and  more  disposed  to  dispense  with  such  an  in- 
dulgence, even  if  it  be  done  by  the  aid  of  legal  pro- 
visions ;  but  such  is  in  no  sense  good  logic,  since  the 
higher  the  civilization,  the  more,  we  insist  on  leaving 
to  individual  choice  and  government ;  we  do  not  call 
ourselves  free,  we  do  not  speak  of  ourselves  as  in  the 
enjoyment  of  any  sort  of  liberty,  if  at  the  same  time 
we  are  forcibly  restrained  of  what,  in  even  a  ruder  state 
of  society,  was  left  to  the  self-restraining  power  of  the 
individual. 

The  tragedy  at  Portland,  at  the  time  it  was  attempted 


MORAL  SUASION.  289 

to  carry  out  the  law  of  Neal  Dow,  fairly  illustrates 
the  extent  and  nature  of  the  evils  that  do  certainly 
grow  out  of  any  attempt  to  execute  such  stringent  and 
ill-founded  statutes.  They  rest  too  much  on  pure  au- 
thority, and  too  little  on  the  intelligent  and  cultivated 
sentiments  of  the  individual.  In  the  name  of  liberty, 
they  embody  the  spirit  of  tyranny.  Professing  to  per- 
form nothing  but  the  greatest  good,  they  notoriously 
lead  to  the  greatest  possible  harm.  They  mistake  the 
real  spirit  and  tendency  of  the  age,  which  is  towards 
the  largest  individual  freedom  compatible  with  general 
peace  and  safety,  and  undertake  to  set  up  in  its  stead 
a  certain  crude  theory  of  their  own  as  to  what  that 
spirit  and  tendency  ought  to  be.  They  take  away 
choice,  and  substitute  in  its  place  naked  compulsion. 
And  this  is  openly  hostile  to  the  real  theory  of  our  po- 
litical liberty,  of  our  religion,  and  of  our  social  state. 

This  experiment  has  been  tried,  and  tried  pretty 
thoroughly.  The  people  have  shown  themselves  will- 
ing to  bear  patiently  with  the  experimenters,  to  see  if 
by  good  chance  some  unlooked-for  blessing  might  not 
result.  They  have  even  submitted,  in  many  instances, 
to  personal  insults  and  indignities,  for  the  sake  of  giving 
this  new  piece  of  legislative  experimenting  a  fair  trial. 
At  any  time,  they  well  knew,  they  had  it  in  their  power 
to  take  back  the  direction  and  control  of  matters  into 
their  own  hands,  yet  they  declined  to  avail  themselves 
of  their  privilege  simply  because  they  would  not  seem 
to  judge  even  of  the  value  of  ill-digested  statutes  hastily. 
Therefore  they  have  waited,  and  waited  till  now ;  and 
25 


290  THE  EAMROD   BROKEN. 

even  now  there  is  no  disposition  whatever  on  the  part 
of  the  people  to  take  any  rash  and  hasty  steps,  to  turn 
any  sharp  and  short  corners,  but  to  allow  this  change 
in  sentiment  to  work  itself  out  gradually,  by  natural 
processes,  and  altogether  after  the  safe  methods  and 
laws  of  observation  and  reflection.  It  is  safe  to  assert, 
that  at  this  very  day  there  is  going  on  in  the  public 
mind,  upon  this  important  question,  a  change  that  will 
presently  astonish  those  who  have  been  thinking  that, 
once  establish  a  law,  and  reforms  follow  it  as  a  natural 
consequence.  The  lesson  will  be  learned,  we  believe, 
that  no  enlightened  public  will  ever  consent  to  give  up 
its  freedom  of  instincts,  but  that,  if  discipline  is  needed 
in  order  to  give  greater  protection  to  the  social  state, 
that  discipline,  both  in  the  matter  of  amount,  method, 
and  time,  must  be  left  altogether  to  the  discretion  and 
disposal  of  the  individual. 

The  form  and  character  of  such  a  law  as  we  sincerely 
believe  would  be  most  conducive  to  the  protection  of 
the  community  in  respect  of  the  manufacture,  sale,  and 
use  of  wines,  liquors,  and  inebriating  drinks,  we  think 
the  foregoing  pages  have  indicated  in  a  sufficiently 
clear  and  ample  manner,  and  it  is  not  necessary  for  us 
to  enlarge  upon  the  subject,  much  less  to  indulge  in 
any  repetitions  concerning  it  in  this  place  ;  it  is  enough 
that  it  is  coming  to  be  admitted  more  and  more  openly 
every  day,  that  the  best  that  can  be  done  is  to  regulate 
a  traffic  which  cannot  be  prevented,  or  outrooted,  and 
to  leave  the  rest  to  the  healthy  operations  —  as  perma- 
nent, too,  as  they  are  healthy  —  of  moral  suasion.  We 


MORAL   SUASION.  291 

have  not  yet  discovered  the  true  merit  of  this  plan,  be- 
cause we  have  not  yet  sufficiently  given  it  our  confi- 
dence and  trust.  Where  it  has  been  tried,  with  all 
surrounding  circumstances  to  cooperate  with  its  pow- 
erful influence,  it  has  shown  itself  capable  of  working 
wonders  indeed.  If  the  reader  will  revert  to  the 
account  we  have  given  of  the  almost  miraculous  con- 
versions wrought  in  Newport  by  Hawkins,  the  great 
temperance  apostle,  he  will  at  once  see  that  this  power 
of  persuasion  is  by  no  means  one  of  the  "  lost  arts," 
but  may  be  brought  to  bear  with  all  its  native  strength 
and  energy  to-day.  That  single  narrative  indicates  the 
most  gigantic  results  ;  it  will  do  well  to  set  over  against 
the  temporary  reign  of  terror  instituted  by  Neal  Dow  — 
another  apostle  of  temperance  —  in  Portland,  that  re- 
flecting people  may  see  for  themselves  the  vast  differ- 
ence in  the  results  of  the  two  plans.  Newport  and 
Portland  exhibit  the  sharpest  and  boldest  contrasts  in 
this  matter,  and  the  reader  will  do  well  to  oppose  them 
frequently  in  his  mind,  when  he  pauses  to  give  serious 
attention  to  this  subject. 

If  men  would  be  as  ready  to  trust  their  good  and 
noble  qualities  as  they  are  to  rely  on  their  mean  and 
baser  ones,  or,  rather,  if  they  would  go  forth  thinking 
to  reform  the  world  as  Christ  did,  by  simply  sowing 
good  seed  on  every  side,  and  leaving  it  to  spring  up  or 
not  as  nature  willed  it,  and  not  by  exciting  prejudice, 
passion,  class  feeling,  and  all  the  bad  blood  that  flows 
in  the  veins  of  human  nature,  there  is  little  question 
that  something  very  different  would  result  from  it  from 


292  THE  KAMBOD   BROKEN. 

what  we  behold  around  us  to-day.  But  we  have  too 
little  confidence  in  truth ;  we  continually  doubt  and 
suspect  one  another  ;  we  ever  think  it  a  mark  of  wis- 
dom to  agree  to  call  a  man  a  rogue  till  he  has  proved 
himself — if  he  has  the  opportunity  —  honest;  we  put 
no  faith  in  the  power  of  Love,  but  esteem  Hate  stronger, 
simply  because  it  does  its  work  quicker  ;  we  are,  more 
than  all  this,  impatient  because  we  do  not  see  the  effects 
of  our  work  sooner,  and,  like  pettish  children,  run  off 
to  try  something  else  that  will  produce  earlier  fruits. 

We  often  bring  to  mind  the  fable  of  the  Sun  and 
the  North  Wind,  when  the  traveller,  with  his  cloak 
wrapped  around  him,  went  forth  to  encounter  the  wind, 
but  was  finally  forced  to  throw  off  his  cloak  altogether 
in-  consequence  of  the  superior  power  of  the  sun.  This 
fable  aptly  illustrates  the  contest  that  has  for  some  time 
been  going  on  between  the  power  of  law  and  the  power 
of  moral  suasion.  One  makes  a  man  defiant,  fills  him 
with  opposing  energy,  and  excites  the  highest  spirit  of 
resistance ;  while  the  other  conquers  him  by  the  silent 
force  of  love,  and,  having  once  conquered  him,  forever 
after  keeps  him  as  a  cooperator  and  friend.  There  is  all 
of  this  advantage  in  moral  suasion,  that  it  does  not 
conquer  by  overcoming,  but  by  practically  convincing ; 
so  that  the  man  who  yields  to  it  does  so,  not  as  being 
vanquished,  but  as  being  converted.  Thenceforward 
he  helps  along  the  cause  to  which  he  has  been  brought 
over,  instead  of  merely  submitting  with  a  sullen  grace, 
to  superior  authority. 

It  is  a  fact  which  will  soon  have  to  be  openly  admitted 


MORAL   SUASION.  293 

in  this  matter,  as  it  is  theoretically  admitted  in  almost 
every  other,  that  appeals  to  prejudice  and  passion  can 
do  nothing  at  all  for  the  cause  of  temperance.  The 
idea  has  been  exploded  so  far  as  religion  is  concerned ; 
it  will  have  to  be  in  the  matter  of  temperance.  When 
the  community  is  excited  from  one  part  to  another 
over  this  question,  when  hard  names  are  called,  and 
reputations,  earned  after  long  years  of  labor,  are 
trampled  under  foot,  and  societies  split  asunder,  and 
even  families,  once  all  harmony,  become  rent  with  feuds 
and  torn  with  madness,  and  human  life  itself  becomes 
a  rash  sacrifice,  flung  as  an  offering  to  the  demon  of 
hate  and  passion,  there  is  little  likelihood  of  the  law 
becoming  elevated  in  the  general  respect,  and  much 
less  of  the  public  conscience  becoming  tender  upon 
points  and  practices  to  which,  under  more  favorable 
circumstances,  it  would  be  tremblingly  alive.  Once 
open  the  doors  and  let  in  passion,  and  from  that  mo- 
ment reason  is  driven  out.  And  since  all  reform,  all 
growth,  all  real  advancement  is  the  result  of  reason 
and  reflection,  aided  most  effectually,  of  course,  by  the 
power  of  persuasion,  it  is  incontestable  that  when  re- 
forms are  attempted,  they  can  take  no  permanent  root 
except  in  the  reason  and  the  native  sentiments  out  of 
which  every  thing  like  character  must  surely  grow. 

We  shall  hold  to  this  doctrine  till  all  else  has  been 
given  up.  As  the  genial  sun  has  so  much  more  power 
than  the  blustering  north  wind,  so  has  moral  suasion 
more  than  the  machinery  of  arbitrary  laws,  or  the 
tyranny  of  partisan  prejudice  and  passion.  Men  will 
25* 


294  THE   RAMROD   BROKEN. 

be  convinced,  but  they  will  not  be  driven.  It  is  easy 
enough,  —  and  we  fear  it  is  much  too  common,  besides, 
—  for  would-be  lawgivers  to  draught  their  theoretical 
statutes,  and  say,  "  Now,  we  know  this  statute,  or  that 
statute,  to  be  the  best  thing  that  could  be  set  up  as  a 
rule  of  public  action,  and  therefore  all  the  rest  of  the 
community  shall  obey  it,  whether  it  suits  their  reason 
or  their  instincts,  or  no."  But  it  is  not  such  an  easy 
matter,  on  the  other  hand,  for  them  to  declare  that 
what  they  know  to  be  good  and  proper  is  really  thought 
to  be  good  and  proper  by  others ;  and  until  this  is  in  a 
larger  measure  the  case  than  it  now  is,  there  is  little 
use  in  making  an  attempt  to  enforce  any  law,  since  it 
is  entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  reason  and  re- 
spect. The  great  vice  of  reformers  is,  that  they  are 
not  willing  to  leave  any  thing  to  nature ;  they  must 
needs  be  interfering  with  their  own  little  plots  and 
plans  all  the  while,  as  if  Nature  did  not  work  fast 
enough,  or  sure  enough,  for  them,  and  they  would  jog 
her  on  from  time  to  time,  and  help  her  out  with  their 
own  petty  devices.  Men  who  seek  the  reformation  of 
the  race,  and  very  many  of  them,  too,  the  best  inten- 
tioned  men  and  the  sincerest  that  live,  are  too  impa- 
tient because  matters  do  not  progress  faster  than  they 
do,  or  because,  forsooth,  their  own  personal  projects  do 
not  eventuate  as  they  had  hoped.  They  put  too  much 
confidence  in  law,  and  too  little  in  reason.  They  rely 
on  authority,  and  treat  persuasion  as  a  very  little  thing. 
They  defy  the  instincts  of  human  nature,  thinking  to 
set  up  something  better  in  their  place.  Force  is  their 


MORAL   SUASION.  295 

god,  and  they  hold  the  gentle  but  certain  operations  of 
persuasion  in  very  slight  esteem. 

All  this  will  have  to  be  changed.  We  can  see  for 
ourselves,  if  we  will  stop  to  look  at  it,  that  a  change  is 
already  coming  over  the  public  mind  on  this  subject. 
Men  have  opened,  and  are  still  opening,  their  eyes  to 
the  significant  facts  all  around  them  —  facts  that  tell 
them  far  different  stories  from  those  they  have  been 
told  by  these  fanciful  theories  of  legal  reform,  and  that 
form  the  basis  for  a  very  different  kind  of  reform  from 
that  which  relies  upon  force  as  its  finality.  We  can 
all  see  how  little  a  law  is  doing  for  society,  which  every 
one  makes  it  a  point  to  treat  with  ridicule  and  con- 
tempt. We  can  see  how  next  to  impossible  it  is  to 
carry  out  its  provisions  ;  with  what  countless  difficul- 
ties arid  dangers  it  is  beset ;  how  it  provokes  hostility, 
instead  of  inspiring  respect  and  a  spirit  of  obedience, 
and  how  universal  this  hostility  has  become ;  how  it 
alienates  friends  and  neighbors,  sunders  communities, 
arrays  class  against  class  in  the  most  deadly  feuds,  and 
divides  families  with  the  ruthlessness  of  barbarism  itself; 
how  the  very  thought  of  reformation  is  entirely  sunk 
and  swallowed  up  in  the  other  thought  of  carrying  the 
point,  of  forcing  the  community  into  obedience,  of 
making  authority  good  ;  and,  finally,  how  important 
are  all  the  various  methods  resorted  to  for  the  attain- 
ment of  any  good  whatever,  while  nothing  but  mischief 
and  misery  are  the  consequences  of  the  measures  thus 
set  on  foot  by  mistaken  zealots  and  ambitious  reformers. 

And  this  spectacle  is  enough.     The  reflecting  man  is 


296  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

at  no  loss  to  draw  the  legitimate  inferences  from  it. 
It  is  too  plain  that  there  is  a  mistake  thus  far,  and  that 
the  only  safety  lies  in  retracing  our  steps  and  accepting 
the  valuable  hints  offered  us  by  nature  and  reason. 
There  is  no  need,  and  there  should  be  no  fear,  of  re- 
lapsing from  a  show  of  stringent  authority,  under  the 
name  of  law,  into  the  opposite  extreme  of  license,  and 
no  law ;  such  a  fear  proceeds  only  from  those  minds 
that,  as  we  said  before,  trust  altogether  to  authority, 
and  in  no  wise  to  reason  ;  but  it  is  baseless  and  mis- 
chievous. What  we  want  is,  a  thorough  law,  that  shall 
protect  the  community,  and  which,  from  its  very  tone 
and  temper,  may  hope  to  be  executed  and  sustained ; 
the  rest  is  to  be  left  —  must  be  left  —  to  be  done  by  the 
silent,  secret,  and  beautiful  processes  of  reason  and 
persuasion.  And  such  a  work  cannot  fail  to  be  both 
permanent  and  secure. 


CONCLUSION.  297 


XXXVIIL 

CONCLUSION. 

WE  cannot  bring  this  volume  to  a  close  without  call- 
ing the  reader  to  witness  that,  in  the  progress  of  its 
several  chapters,  we  have  in  no  way  encouraged  the 
immoderate  use  of  intoxicating  drinks.  Such  has  cer- 
tainly been  the  farthest  from  our  intention.  That  we 
have  spoken,  and  with  just  cause,  of  the  drunkard  as  a 
self-made  beast,  is  true,  and  it  was  our  deliberate  in- 
tention so  to  speak  of  him.  He  has  little  .enough  ex- 
cuse, at  the  best,  for  the  disgrace  into  which  he  brings 
himself.  We  have  referred  to,  and  quoted  in  various 
places,  the  laws  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  in  relation  to 
intemperance,  —  laws  that  condemned  the  drunkard  to 
death,  —  and  likewise  spoken  of  the  severe  penalties 
imposed  by  the  statutes  of  other  nations  well  known  in 
ancient  history.  Some  of  these  laws  only  declared  that 
the  finger  of  scorn  should  be  pointed  at  the  inebriate, 
which  would  not  be  any  too  insignificant  a  punishment 
even  in  this  country  of  ours.  But  we  offer  no  sugges- 
tions to  our  legislators  on  this  point.  They  will  not  for- 
get, on  the  one  hand,  what  is  due  to  society,  nor,  on  the 
other,  what  are  the  most  humane  methods  by  which  so 
unfortunate  a  being  as  the  inebriate  rnay  be  lifted  out 
of  his  degradation.  Hosts  of  drunkards  have  been 


298  THE  RAMROD  BROKEN. 

reformed  —  have  reformed  themselves;  for  there  is  no 
reform  except  it  be  self-wrought.  And  what  they  have 
succeeded  in  happily  accomplishing  for  themselves 
once,  they  may  assuredly  do  again. 

And  while  alluding  to  this  work  of  reformation  from 
the  vice  of  drunkenness,  it  gives  us  tlie  sincerest  pleas- 
ure to  state  to  our  readers  that  there  has  been,  for 
many  years,  ah  institution  in  the  city  of  Boston,  called 
the  "Home  for  the 'Fallen,"  of  which  Mr.  Albert  Day 
is  the  humane  and  efficient  superintendent.  This  in- 
stitution is  established  at  No.  36  Charles  Street.  Here, 
in  this  almost  private  quarter,  a  man  has  been  devoted 
to  the  pursuit  of -a  work,  which  entitles  him  to  a  thou- 
sand times  as  much  praise  as  the  bloody  work  of  Neal 
Dow  of  Portland,  because  it  is  a  work  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  persistent  philanthropy.  Mr.  Day  is  very 
glad  at  all  times  to  see  visitors  and  sympathizing 
inquirers,  to  whom  he  is  ever  ready  to  impart  such  in- 
formation as  his  varied  experience  has  put  him  in  pos- 
session of.  He  is  doing  a  noble  work,  although  his 
name  is  blown  out  of  no  trumpets,  and  swings  on  no 
flags  in  the  air.  Through  his  personal  instrumentality 
hundreds  of  unhappy  beings,  once  men,  have  been 
lifted  out  of  their  accustomed  degradation,  and  raised 
to  posts  of  usefulness  and  even  public  honor. 

If  an  habitual  drunkard  desires  to  reform,  he  may  put 
ipecac,  or  antimony,  in  his  rum,  and  that  will  be  found 
to  assist  him  temporarily  ;  still,  whatever  results  such 
agencies  may  be  able  to  work  out,  Mr.  Day  professes 
to  use  nothing  more  and  nothing  less  simple  than  the 


CONCLUSION.  299 

law  of  love ;  and  many  oT  his  disciples  and  beneficiaries 
may  be  found  to-day  in  Boston,  men  thoroughly  re- 
formed and  honestly  respecting  themselves,  who  have 
risen  from  their  fall  by  no  other  aid  than  that  of  the 
all-pervading  law  of  morality  and  reason.  They  can 
walk  by  a  grog  shop  as  safely  as  they  can  avoid  a  mud 
puddle.  But  it  is  only  because  they  have  been  taught 
to  respect  themselves,  rather  than  the  forms  of  pledges, 
or  the  authority  of  law,  or  the  power  of  public  preju- 
dice. Treat  an  inebriate  like  a  man,  and  he  will  be 
likely  to  reform  ;  but  unless  you  do  as  much  as  this, 
you  destroy  his  confidence  in  himself  and  make  certain 
and  permanent  his  degradation. 

Our  solemn  advice  is  to  every  person  who  has  been 
in  the  habit  of  using  spirituous  liquors  moderately,  to 
impose  upon  himself  the  severe  restriction  of  total  and 
unconditional  abstinence  —  not  to  touch  a  glass,  not  to 
taste  a  drop  —  if  it  appears  that  the  habit  becomes  too 
strong  at  all  times  to  keep  under  control.  And  we 
would  further  recommend  to  any  one  who  makes  only 
an  occasional  and  moderate  use  of  liquors,  to  abstain 
for  a  few  weeks  at  a  time,  that  he  may  be  sure  at  all 
times  that  he  has  control  of  his  appetites.  This  would 
be  on  the  same  principle  with  the  facts,  which  are  prac- 
tised so  efficaciously  by  certain  of  our  religious  sects. 
Far  better  suffer  —  if  suffering  it  is  —  from  the  use  of 
too  little,  than  from  excess.  A  drunkard  is  the  most 
loathed  of  all  men,  because  he  consents  thus  to  debase 
himself;  because  he  gratifies  his  appetites  at  the  ex- 
pense and  degradation  of  his  intellect  and  his  spiritual 


300  THE  RAMROD   BROKEN. 

nature.  He  wallows  in  a  sty  of  sensual  indulgence, 
and  can  never  hope  to  advance  or  become  exalted  while 
he  continues  in  such  courses.  It  is  to  him  ruin  in- 
deed ;  for  it  is  brought  upon  himself,  and  it  is  complete. 
We  call  upon  the  real  and  consistent  friends  of  TEM- 
PERANCE, rather  than  the  friends  of  the  mere  temper- 
ance party,  to  cooperate  in  the  enactment  of  a  stringent 
law-  against  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  spurious  and 
counterfeit  liquors.  We  have  laws,  in  present  opera- 
tion, to  punish  the  counterfeiting  of  money,  and  why 
not  have  them  to  punish  the  counterfeiting  of  liquor  ? 
If  such  are  passed,  and  rigidly  enforced,  we  need  en- 
tertain no  more  fears  of  the  ravages  of  delirium  tre- 
mens.  Only  let  pure  spirits  have  the  benefit  of  as  good 
laws  as  good  money  has,  and  the  consequences  will  be 
plain  to  every  one.  We  shall  be  secure  of  temperance 
every  where,  and  all  the  inebriates  now  worth  saving 
would  be  certain  to  reform. 


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to  NRLF 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


DEES 


YB  075 


Ferrer 


